Turkey quits European treaty on violence against women
President Tayyip Erdogan pulled Turkey out of an international accord designed to protect women, ministers and an official notice said yesterday, prompting criticism from those who said it was necessary to address rising domestic violence.
The Council of Europe accord, called the Istanbul Convention, pledged to prevent, prosecute and eliminate domestic violence and promote equality. Turkey signed it in 2011 but femicide has surged in the country in recent years.
No reason was provided for the withdrawal in the Official Gazette, where it was announced in the early hours yesterday. But top government officials said domestic law rather than outside fixes would protect women's rights.
The convention, forged in Turkey's biggest city, had split Erdogan's ruling AK Party (AKP) and even his family. Last year, officials said the government was mulling pulling out amid a row over how to curb growing violence against women.
Marija Pejcinovic Buric, secretary general of the 47-nation Council of Europe, called Turkey's decision "devastating" given the violence women and girls face.
"This move is a huge setback to these efforts and all the more deplorable because it compromises the protection of women in Turkey, across Europe and beyond," she said.
Opposition politicians said Erdogan by law cannot act without parliament's consent. But many conservatives in Turkey and in his Islamist-rooted AKP say the pact undermines family structures, encouraging violence.
Some are also hostile to the Istanbul Convention's principle of gender equality and see it as promoting homosexuality, given the pact's non-discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.
Turkey does not keep official statistics on femicide. But the rate roughly tripled in the last 10 years, according to a group that monitors femicide. So far in 2021, 78 women have been murdered or died under suspicious circumstances, it said.
World Health Organization data has shown 38% of women in Turkey are subject to violence from a partner in their lifetime, compared to about 25% in Europe.
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