Skip to content
Kurdish Centre for Human Rights

Kurdish Centre for Human Rights

Centre Kurde des Droits de l’Homme

  • Home
  • About us
    • Status
    • Activities
  • Reports
    • Iran
    • Iraq
    • Syria
    • Turkey
  • OHCHR
    • KCHR
  • News
    • Press Releases
    • Women
    • Children
    • Prisons
    • War Crimes
  • Contact
  • IT
    • .
      • Actualités
      • Femmes
  • Toggle search form

Human Rights Council Forty-seventh session 21 June–9 July 2021 Agenda item 3 

Posted on June 26, 2021January 9, 2023 By Centre Kurde Genève

United Nations  General Assembly

A/HRC/47/NGO/90 

Distr.: General 14 June 2021 

Human Rights Council Forty-seventh session 21 June–9 July 2021 Agenda item 3 

Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development Written statement* submitted by Mouvement contre le  racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples, a non governmental organization on the roster 

The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is  circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31. 

[30 May 2021] 

* Issued as received, in the language(s) of submission only.

GE.21-07802(E) 

A/HRC/47/NGO/90 

Turkey: violence against women 

Following the adoption of the Decree of Law issued under the State of Emergency in 2016,  Jinên Azad (KJA), the umbrella organization of the Kurdish women’s movement (49 women’s  institutions); Women’s news agency JINHA, women’s associations (almost all mass women’s  associations), foundations, newspapers and publications have been closed. Thousands of  academics, writers and journalists have been fired in Turkey. In addition, the assets, bank  accounts, buildings and materials used in the work of the closed women’s institutions were  unlawfully confiscated. In particular, the confiscation by security forces of documents  containing the application stories and credentials of women who applied to women’s centers  and associations, which should be kept confidential, created an unprotected environment for  women who continued to be at risk of violence. 

SOURCES OF VIOLENCE, LACK OF DATA AND WITHDRAWAL  FROM ISTANBUL CONVENTION 

The KJA continued its work mostly in the South-East provinces and carried out many studies  on male/state violence through existing institutions and the press. The Government did not  respond, despite repeated requests by female HDP deputies for data on male violence in 81  provinces. The Ministry of Family, Labor and Social welfare ministry’s reluctance to give  any clarification has spread the idea that violence against women is being covered up by the  government. 

The data presented below is related to violence’s accessible data. Although the actual  violence data is much higher than these numbers, the government’s approaches to concealing  all acts of violence against women and their consequences have made it almost impossible to  access official figures and resources. 

In 2020, 2,520 women in Turkey reported violence against them by men; often, women are  subject to multiple forms of violence. Regardless of the reason for the application, women  are subjected to intense psychological violence. When we look at this data; 775 women have  requested shelter, 250 women have been subjected to economic violence and have requested  help, 712 women have filed for divorce as a result of the violence they have suffered, and  113 women have applied after the sexual assault. All 670 women have applied to institutions  as a result of any violence they have been subjected to. With 18 years of AKP rule, women’s  crime increased by 1,400 per 100. More than 3,000 Kurdish women have been murdered by  men since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power. 

In South-East Turkey, predominantly inhabited by Kurdish people, at least 41 women were  murdered by their ex-husbands, brothers and boyfriends in 2020, and 60 women died  suspiciously. The suspected female mortality rate is almost one and a half times the rate of  unsolved death. This data tells us that even the causes of death of women are not adequately  investigated and cared for within the patriarchal system that protects men. It is recorded as a  “suspicious death” without an effective investigation. It’s officially a system- sponsored  massacre of women. Female massacres are not carried out by individual male perpetrators. 

In recent months, cases of sexual harassment and rape have doubled again in Kurdistan. For  example, an attempt was made to rape a thirteen-year-old girl in Shirnak, and in Batman, a  17-year-old girl named I. committed suicide as a result of systematic rapes. In both cases, the  perpetrators were petty officers and sergeants from the Turkish army. The acts of these  uniformed criminals (as in hundreds of examples) were covered up by the state and once  again the principle of impunity was tried to be operated. 

Violence against women has increased many times, especially as a result of the 2016 state of  emergency and the government’s Trustee policies. At this stage, the government’s policies of  repression and violence reached the withdrawal of Turkey’s from Council of Europe Istanbul  Convention (Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention and Combating Violence  against Women and Domestic Violence) on the evening of March 20, 2021, with the single  signature of President Erdogan.

 

A/HRC/47/NGO/90 

In the periods after the Istanbul Convention was signed, the pressure and influence of various  Islamic sects, communities and structures were known. In early July 2020, AKP Deputy  Leader Numan Kurtulmush announced that the signing of the agreement was a mistake.  Targeting the Convention by Islamic, conservative groups; the perception that it challenges  traditional gender image, encourages lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups and puts  the “sacred- traditional family” structure at risk has been spread through the community. As  a consequence, new massacres were committed by encouraging the increase of male violence  against women and LGBTQ+ individuals. The withdrawal from the Convention paves the  way for perpetrators of violence against women to become virtually protected by the  judiciary. 

According to the news content obtained through JINHA, the data on violence against women  throughout Turkey for the first three months of 2021 are as follows: in January; twenty-four  women were murdered by their closest relatives, while 14 died suspiciously. In February;  twenty-four women were murdered by their closest relatives, while five women died  suspiciously. In March; male violence jumped due to the misogynistic policies of the  government which withdrew from the Istanbul Convention and, as a result, 27 women were  murdered by men close to them, while 15 died suspiciously. While there has been an increase  in child abuse, the judiciary has not stopped imposing a “good behavior reduction” on  perpetrators. 

JUDICIAL HARASSMENT, TORTURE AND MISTREATMENT OF  FEMALE POLITICIANS 

At a time when the Covid-19 virus is in high intensity and people are afraid to leave their  homes, judicial harassment against women continues to increase with midnight operations  carried out without regard to hygiene and Covid 19 rules. 

Numerous women’s homes were raided by law enforcement officers accompanied by dogs  (Rojbîn Cetin was held in her house and tortured with a dog for 3.5 hours), but no law  enforcement officer has been investigated. On the contrary, his lawyer who disclosed this  situation has been investigated and this investigation continues. 

Arrests, arbitrary detentions and torture of women took place everywhere. On February 27,  2021, several elderly and sick women were detained for days, 12 were arrested and 17 were  released under the condition of judicial control, including Hatun Aslan (71) Mary Soylu (79)  and Makbule Ozbek (70), a peace mother with severe chronic conditions. Also on 5April  2021, 11 women were released under the condition of judicial control and 17 women were  arrested, including one under house arrest. 

In these political operations, which have been heavily targeted at the struggle and  representation of Kurdish women in the last year; there are hundreds of selected Kurdish  female prisoners, many of whom have been arrested in similar operations such as Leyla  Guven, Ayshe Gokkan and Ayla Akat Ata, who have played a leading role in the women’s  struggle, and who are held as political hostages in prisons such as Kandira and Silivri. 

RECCOMANDATION 

MRAP calls upon Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading  treatment or punishment, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and  consequences, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and the  Special Rapporteur on minority issues, each one in the framework of his/her mandate, to pay  particular attention to the cases of violence against women in Turkey and to request a visit to  the country.

 

Femmes, OHCHR

Post navigation

Previous Post: Press briefing notes on Turkey
Next Post: Iran must halt imminent execution of Kurdish prisoner – UN experts 

More Related Articles

UN experts : Mercenaries in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone must be withdrawn News
COVID-19 Recommendations and implementation tools of WHO News
Mise à jour orale : Assemblée générale Conseil des droits de l’homme 42ème session Point 4 FR
20 organizations call for urgent UN action for Afrin OHCHR
UN urge Iraq to halt mass executions Iraq
Des milliers de Kurdes yézidis massacrés Femmes

About us

The Kurdish Center for Human Rights was established in Geneva in 2000, according to the Suisse civil law. In response to the genocide, war crimes and human rights violations occurring across the Kurdish regions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria.

The KCHR, as a non-profit organization of social utility, was born from the need to  inform the European and Swiss people and the OHCHR on human rights violations against the Kurds via seminars and other dialogue platforms and to attend their meetings; to establish a dialogue with NGO’s, civil movements, associations, government and civil institutions.. Read More….

Contact

Centre Kurde des Droits de l’Homme
Kurdish Center for Human Rights

15, Rue des Savoises, 1205 Genève – Suisse
Tel :+41 (0)22 328 1984
Email: info@kurd-chr.ch / kurd.chr.geneve@gmail.com
Web : http://www.kurd-chr.ch

Compte : Post Finance – CENTRE KURDE
IBAN: CH40 0900 0000 17763911 5

Recent Posts

  • Earthquakes and Human Rights Violations in Turkey
  • KurdDAO Launches Fundraising Campaign in Support of Kurdish Human Rights
  • REPORT OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN TURKISH PRISONS
  • Repression Practices Against the Press and Journalists in Turkey
  • Iran must halt imminent execution of Kurdish prisoner – UN experts 

Search

March 2023
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Jan    

Information

  • Iran must halt imminent execution of Kurdish prisoner – UN experts 
  • Human Rights Council Forty-seventh session 21 June–9 July 2021 Agenda item 3 
  • Press briefing notes on Turkey
  • Written Statement: Violations of the Turkish-backed armed factions in northeastern Syrian Arab Republic
  • Bachelet updates Human Rights Council on recent human rights issues in more than 50 countries

Archives

Copyright © 2023 Kurdish Centre for Human Rights.

Powered by PressBook Green WordPress theme