The weekend decision by Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to repudiate an international convention safeguarding women from domestic violence and extending rights to the LGBT community provoked angry protests across the country.
Turkey was the first country to sign the Council of Europe's convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence in 2011. The so-called Istanbul Convention, which is now endorsed by 45 states and the European Union, has the force of law under Turkey's constitution. But Erdogan, who signed it a decade ago, now claims it damages the family and promotes divorce and homosexuality. Opinion polls last year, however, showed that the overwhelming majority of Turks want to remain in the convention.
Turkey's record of implementation has been woeful – at least 300 women were killed for their gender in Turkey last year
The presidential edict repudiating the convention is strongly contested as ultra vires and an attack on parliament, with oppositionists insisting the convention remains in place. It marks another move by Erdogan to use the reinforced powers of the executive presidency to remould Turkey’s secular constitution to reflect the aspirations of his conservative base.
International condemnation from the council, the EU and many heads of state, including US president Joe Biden, has been swift. Erdogan's move flies directly against the international current of strengthening protection of women. It is being seen as giving the lie to his recently professed intention to move closer to EU accession by upgrading Turkish human rights standards.
The convention states that men and women have equal rights and obliges state authorities to take steps to prevent gender-based violence against women, protect victims and prosecute perpetrators. Turkey's record of implementation has been woeful – at least 300 women were killed for their gender in Turkey last year, while almost 40 per cent of women in Turkey suffer violence at their partners' hands, compared with about 25 per cent in Europe overall, according to the World Health Organisation.