Turkish president withdraws from international convention to protect women

Turkey has formally withdrawn from the Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.

This came under the presidential decree of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published in the country’s official newspaper, at dawn Saturday.

The Presidential Decree entered into force once it was published in the Official Gazette, meaning that the Turkish regime had implemented its previous threat to withdraw from that Convention, which would create a state of controversy in the country for the coming period.

The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence or “Istanbul Convention” is a convention against violence against women, concluded by the Council of Europe and opened for signature on 11 May 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Earlier, the Turkish Government had indicated its intention to withdraw from the Convention, so that women’s demonstrations rejecting the resolution would begin in several cities in the country over the past few years.

Istanbul’s Deputy to the Turkish Parliament for Justice and Development, Numan Kurtulmuş, said that action would be taken to bring the Convention to an end, which had caused fear and panic among Turkish women on their lives and those of their children.

Turkish women were trying to rely on the Istanbul Convention, which had been adopted in 2014. Signatory States had committed themselves to establishing a framework to combat violence against women, and Turkey had ratified it five years earlier and had incorporated it into a law to prevent violence against women and protect the family.

However, in practice, as critics say, the legal norms of the Istanbul Convention are not applied and the agreed steps to help protect women are not implemented, and violence and discrimination against women can be prevented only if the judiciary and law enforcement authorities apply the Convention.