WUNRN
GENDER NGO COLLABORATIVE SHADOW
REPORT FOR TURKEY REVIEW
BY THE UN COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC,
SOCIAL & CULTURAL RIGHTS
Direct Link to Full 18-Page Turkey
NGO Shadow Report- Gender
Shadow NGO Report
on
to the
Committee on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
for submission to the CESCR 46th Session
May 2011
prepared by
Executive Committee for NGO Forum on CEDAW
and Women’s Platform on the Turkish Penal Code:
§ AMARGI
§
Amnesty International
§ The Foundation for Women’s Solidarity (FWS)
§ Association for the Support and Training of Women Candidates
§
§ Çanakkale Association to Promote Women’s Labor
§ Diyarbakır Bar Women’s Commission
§ Filmmor Women’s Cooperative
§ IRIS Equality Watch
§ KAHDEM – Center for Legal Support to Women Association
§ KAOS GL
§ KAZETE
§ LAMBDA
§ Purple Roof Women’s Shelter Foundation
§ Republican Women’s Association
§
The Association of Turkish Women’s
§ Women’s Solidarity Foundation (KADAV)
§
Women for Women’s Human Rights –
§ Working Group for Women in Homebased Work
§
Van Women’s Association
Shadow
NGO Report to the U.N. CESCR
Submitted
by Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways, on behalf of the Turkish Penal
Code Platform and the Executive NGO Forum on CEDAW - Turkey[1][1]
For submission to the 46th
session of CESCR, May 2011
This Shadow Report aims to draw attention to the
discrimination and the human rights violations that women in
Under the current Government’s second term (since 2007),
there has been little progress in
The Prime Minister of Turkey held a roundtable
meeting with women’s NGOs in July 2010 to hear their views on the so-called
“democratization initiative” started by his Government.. Here he made a public
statement as follows “I have to admit that, I do not believe that women are
equal to men. Women and men are born different and they are different by nature
but they compliment each other.” As the statement triggered protesting
opposition from the NGO representatives around the table, the Prime Minister
reverted “of course by saying that they are not equal, please do not take me
wrong. Although I do not believe in the equality of men and women, I do believe
in the equality of opportunity.” Despite calls from women’s NGOs to correct the
confusion caused by his statements, the Prime Minister repeated the same
position at another public meeting a few months later. The confusing messages
coming from the Prime Minister regarding gender equality has triggered in the
past few months, a series of public statements by a number of male NGO leaders,
columnists and academics challenging the idea of gender equality, emphasizing
the different nature of men and women and hence supporting preservation of
distinct gender roles. One columnists of a conservative paper went as far as
openly writing that women SHOULD NOT be part of the labor market.
As a result, incomplete or controversial issues
still remain in the reforms that have been passed, and in implementation,
tangible progress is almost nonexistent. In particular, an unwillingness to
improve resource allocation hinders the achievement of full legal and actual
gender equality.
[1][1] Women for Women’s Human Rights –