On 20 March 2021, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced Turkey’s withdrawal from The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence -known as Istanbul Convention- by a presidential decree.
Istanbul Convention was opened for signature on 11 May 2011, the convention aims at prevention of violence, victim protection and to end the impunity of perpetrators. Turkey became the first country to ratify the convention, followed by 33 countries.
In 2020, 409 women were murdered and during the first months of 2021, 82 women were murdered in Turkey. While violence against women roaring, the Turkish Presidency in an official statement released publicly, blamed the LGBTQI+ community for the withdrawal from the Convention, arguing that “the Istanbul Convention, originally intended to promote women’s rights, was hijacked by a group of people attempting to normalize homosexuality -which is incompatible with Turkey’s social and family values.”
Women and LGBTQI+ communities are demanding revoke of this decision and protesting against the President and the government of Turkey because of the withdrawal decree and the homophobia which was openly shown on the public statement from the Turkish Presidency.
IFM-SEI urges the presidency and government of Turkey to revoke the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention and respect the rights of women, girls and LGBTQI+ communities of Turkey.
IFM-SEI also calls upon the international community to urge COE and EU to act against Turkish government’s actions against human rights of women and LGBTQI+ people in Turkey.
As an organisation that believes in and fights for the human rights, rights of women, girls and LGBTQI+ people around the world, declare our solidarity with women and LGBTQI+ communities in Turkey.
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