WUNRN
Website Link for UN Committee on
Economic, Social & Cultural Rights
46th Session, Including
Documentation on Turkey Report Review:
Kurdish & Turkish Women's Rights
Kurdish Women Testify at
UN Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Committee
May 2, 2011 by rojwomen.com
The opening session of the UN
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) Committee reviewing
With the technical and financial
assistance of the Programme on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights, Reyhan Yalcindag, Zozan Ozgokce and Virginia
Lopez Calvo have lobbied on a one to one level and made two public statements
during the opening session of the 46th session of the ESCR Committee. The first
statement highlighted gender inequality in the enjoyment of the economic,
social and cultural rights in Turkey, while the second
statement emphasized the further discrimination endured by Kurdish
women and women from minorities, due to geographical and ethnic factors, in
addition to gender factors.
Some
Committee members have taken an interest in the issue and asked questions and
further clarification on, for example, how does the criminalization of human
rights defenders working on the recognition of Kurds affect Kurdish women and
women from South East Turkey rights. A rather disturbing question was also
raised by one Committee member. He wondered whether the recommendations
suggested by the Kurdish women delegation would be of any use considering what
he called ‘cultural barriers’ to gender equality. It is indeed disappointing to
hear from an UN expert a conservative comment that implies that gender
inequality is an insurmountable problem that is part of a given culture, rather
than a system of oppression (known as ‘patriarchy).
We were able to counteract this unfortunate
question by bringing attention to examples of how cultural practices that
render women vulnerable to violence have been drastically reduced in
It was interesting to hear
similar accounts of abuses of women’s economic, social, cultural rights from
civil society representatives from other countries, such as