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The role of women in Turkey
P6_TA-PROV(2005)0287 (2004/2215(INI))
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the 2004 regular report and the
recommendation of the European Commission on
Turkey’s progress towards accession of 6 October
2004 (COM(2004)0656) and its resolution of 15
December 2004 on that report,
– having regard to the decision of the European
Council of 17 December 2004 to open negotiations
with Turkey concerning accession to the European
Union,
– having regard to the Community acquis in the field
of women’s rights and gender equality,
– having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of
Procedure,
– having regard to the report by the Committee on
Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (A6-0175/2005),
A. whereas Turkey is set to open negotiations
concerning accession to the European Union as of 3
October 2005, in accordance with the decisions of
the European Council of December 2004,
B. whereas the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) forms
a part of international law and takes precedence
over Turkish national law, as recognised by Article
90 of the Turkish Constitution; and whereas Turkey
has been a party since 1985 to CEDAW, and the
Optional Protocol thereof, since 2002,
C. whereas adoption of the Community acquis is
obligatory for candidates wishing to join the
European Union,
D. whereas women’s rights and gender equality are
part of the Community acquis,
E. whereas the recent legal reforms in Turkey in the
area of women’s rights go a long way in implementing
the acquis, though translating those reforms and
changes into practice and achieving practical
results remains a major problem,
F. whereas the new Penal Code entered into force on
1 June 2005 and whereas this example of legislative
progress now needs to be implemented in practice,
G. whereas the abovementioned regular report
identifies, as regards the situation of women, the
following main areas of concern, among others:
violence against women, particularly domestic
violence and crimes of honour and tradition, a high
illiteracy rate, a low level of participation by
women in parliament as well as in local
representative bodies, and the low level of
participation by women and the prevailing
discrimination in the labour market,
H. whereas economic and social underdevelopment in
some urban and rural areas in general and in
disadvantaged regions of Turkey, migration and its
related problems such as poverty, and inner-city
deprivation, aggravate the problems of women in
those regions and undermine their position, which is
also hampered by prevailing patriarchal social
structures,
I. whereas in some regions in Turkey newborn
children are not registered immediately, and
whereas, by means of the practice of later
registration, the age of young women can be
arbitrarily fixed and under-age girls can be
declared to have reached majority, thereby providing
'de facto' legitimation for forced marriages,
J. whereas hundreds of cases of torture were
referred to Turkish government bodies and human
rights organisations during 2003 and 2004 and
whereas more than 2,000 applications for asylum from
Turkish citizens (among them many women) were
accepted by Member States in 2003,
K. whereas, owing to the lack of an integrated
strategy for the development of their economic,
social and cultural needs, Kurdish women are
suffering a long-standing accumulation of problems
(illiteracy, poor health, poverty, exclusion, etc.),
L. whereas negative discrimination against women can
sometimes best be remedied by temporary measures of
positive discrimination as provided for in, among
others, CEDAW, and there is an absolute need for
women role models in positions of power and
decision-making, including at the highest level,
M. whereas the Turkish government has not yet
concluded negotiations with the Commission
concerning participation in the Daphne II programme
on combating violence against women, and seems
unwilling to make any financial contributions of its
own,
N. whereas UNICEF estimates that each year between
600 000 and 800 000 girls who have attained the
mandatory age for going to school are either
prevented by their families from doing so or do not
have the infrastructure available to enable them to
attend the available rural schools,
O. whereas there is a serious lack of accurate data
on the situation of women in Turkey, especially
concerning violence against women, and existing data
does not yet cover all problems relating to women’s
rights,
P. whereas fewer and fewer women are participating
in the Turkish labour market,
Q. whereas political participation by women in
Turkey’s decision-making bodies is disconcertingly
low, with women constituting only 4.4% of the
parliament and around 1% of representatives in local
assemblies, with few women taking part in economic
and political centres of decision making,
R. whereas the economic independence of women is
crucial to their ability to assert their rights,
S. whereas the 14 shelters for women who have been
victims of violence that exist in Turkey do not meet
the needs of a population of approximately 70
million, while even the modest possibilities offered
by the law in force, i.e. a shelter in all
municipalities with over 50 000 inhabitants, are not
being sufficiently realised,
T. whereas on 6 March 2005 the police violently
disrupted a demonstration in Istanbul linked to
International Women's Day and arrested the women
demonstrators,
1. Emphasises that respecting human rights,
including women’s rights, is a sine qua non for
membership of the European Union and calls on the
Commission to make the issue of human rights,
including women’s rights, central to the agenda for
the negotiations with Turkey;
2. Emphasises that the Turkish government should
carefully maintain and establish where needed its
country-wide legal registration of marriages and
births to guarantee every man and woman a full
entitlement to citizenship and the possibility fully
to enjoy their human rights, e.g. access to
education and to health care;
3. Calls on the Commission, in the accession
negotiations with Turkey, to press for steps to be
taken to ensure that newborn children are registered
immediately, thereby putting a stop to any illegal
practices, in particular that of applying to Turkish
family courts to have girls' ages increased so that
they can officially be declared to have reached
majority, with a view to avoiding prosecution for
forcing girls into marriage;
4. Commends the Turkish government and parliament on
the recent legislative reforms, inter alia in the
fields of the Constitution, the Civil and the Penal
Code and the Labour Code, relating to the situation
of women; expresses its concern over the lack of
sufficient progress regarding application and
implementation of legislation in the field of
women’s rights, and therefore expects concrete
gender-sensitive measures, programmes and projects
for implementation, and continuous monitoring of the
implementation of the legislation, e.g. by carrying
out gender-impact assessments on a regular basis;
5. Commends the Turkish government on recent legal
changes which make honour killings punishable by
lifelong imprisonment and allow for the punishment
of accomplices and accessories to honour killings;
commends and approves the recognition of marital
rape as a crime, and calls on the governments of the
Member States to follow this example;
6. Underlines the need for full and effective
implementation of the new legislation and calls on
the Turkish government to ensure that the
Directorate-General for the status of women has a
clear mandate and sufficient funding and staff;
7. Calls on the Turkish government to proceed with
the necessary reforms, and their due implementation,
relating to the protection and dignity of minorities
in the country, in particular the Kurdish
communities in the south-east of Turkey, where the
situation concerning the rights of women remains a
matter of concern (illiteracy, social and
occupational exclusion, poverty, etc.), and calls on
the Turkish government to cooperate with mayors in
these regions in drawing up and promoting targeted
equal opportunities and women’s rights programmes;
8. Stresses that the government, with the aid of the
Directorate-General and in cooperation with women’s
NGOs, needs to provide for a holistic approach with
qualitative and quantitative targets to ensure
women’s rights, which fully respects and recognises
women’s human rights as rights of individuals,
irrespective of their traditional roles as wives and
mothers, with full political commitment, and
stresses that the government needs to implement
gender mainstreaming in line with Article 10 of the
Constitution, to raise awareness on women’s issues
and to protect women’s rights, and needs to create a
gender budget at national and local level and to
initiate and develop projects concerning women’s
rights on a regular basis;
9. Acknowledges the positive role played by civil
society in accomplishing the recent legislative
reforms and recognises that, for democratic changes
to be realised, information and mobilisation of the
whole political class, civil society, religious
communities and the media is needed;
10. Calls on the Commission, and on the Turkish
government, to acknowledge the role of women’s
rights organisations as partners of the government
and to support them and provide them with sufficient
funding and to ensure their independence, in line
with European Union practice;
11. Calls on the Turkish government to continue a
meaningful dialogue with civil society, to cooperate
where possible, to consolidate this cooperation
through official and stable structures and
institutions, and to involve NGOs in the process of
negotiating EU accession;
12. Underlines the importance of structured
cooperation between social partners and between
Turkish NGOs and NGOs in the European Union, for
instance by exchange programmes and ‘twinning’ such
organisations;
13. States that sufficient funds for NGOs in Turkey,
within the framework of the European Initiative for
Democracy and Human Rights, must be provided for in
the EU Financial Perspective for 2007–2013;
14. Calls on the Commission, in the light of the
third pillar of its accession strategy, to initiate
and support, in cooperation with the Turkish
government, debates within Turkish society on
women’s rights, and particularly on violence,
illiteracy and the right to education, especially in
rural and disadvantaged areas;
15. Condemns the excessive use of force by members
of the police force during demonstrations, and
welcomes the recent pledge by the government to
uphold the Circular of the Ministry of the Interior
of 17 August 2004 on the prevention and punishment
of possible disproportionate use of force by the
security forces; urges the government to raise
awareness on women’s rights and to provide training,
as called for in the following paragraph;
16. Finds that the protection of women’s rights is
still insufficient in practice, especially as
regards violence against women, and urges the
government to direct more attention to the
implementation of legislation, among other things by
urgently setting up shelters, supporting initiatives
by civil society and providing adequate funds from
national and municipal budgets for both government
and NGO shelters, as well as mandatory gender- and
violence-sensitivity training for public
administrators, the police, the judiciary and health
and educational personnel;
17. Calls on the Turkish government to change
Municipality Law No 5215 on shelters so as to make
the establishment of multiple shelters in all
municipalities with over 50 000 inhabitants
mandatory, to ensure all shelters are built and
maintained in accordance with international
standards and to facilitate and support NGOs’
providing such shelters and similar facilities;
18. Recognises that Turkey has already made a start
with implementing legislation and acknowledges
individual projects that have already been set up;
also recognises the positive role the Commission has
played with regard to these projects;
19. Calls on the government of Turkey to set up more
nurseries in order to boost women’s participation in
the workforce;
20. Welcomes as a first step the recent announcement
by the government that before the end of 2005 about
five additional shelters will be opened;
21. Urges the Turkish government to give serious
consideration to participating in the Daphne II
programme on combating violence against women;
22. Condemns instances of polygamy, forced marriage,
crimes of tradition, honour crimes and violence
against women in general, including sexual
harassment at work, and requests the Turkish
government as a whole and individual members of the
cabinet and members of parliament to do the same, to
seek ways to prevent these crimes and to put a stop
to them, to punish crimes of custom and crimes of
honour equally severely and to participate in and
organise campaigns for raising public awareness of
these issues and to support NGOs’ campaigns on these
issues financially;
23. Urges the government to take measures to ensure
the safety of victims of violence and witnesses
during judicial proceedings in cases of violence
against women;
24. Welcomes the criminalisation of non-voluntary
virginity tests and genital examinations, notes the
exception made in cases of a court order, but
stresses that even where there is such an order the
consent of the women concerned should be an absolute
necessity;
25. Calls on the government to provide women who
have been, or are at risk of becoming, victims of
violence with proper, easily accessible healthcare
and legal support and protection, and to establish
telephone help lines for women to report violence
and request support;
26. Commends the Turkish government on recent legal
changes which make honour killings punishable by
lifelong imprisonment and allow for the punishment
of accomplices to such killings; commends the
recognition of marital rape as a crime, and calls on
the Turkish government to ensure that the penal
sanctions envisaged are effectively applied; calls
on the Member States to fight honour crimes on their
territory;
27. Asks the Commission to support the drawing up of
independent, comprehensive prevalence studies
providing, inter alia, reliable data, especially
with regard to the illiteracy rate among women,
problems related to women’s labour force
participation, and the occurrence of violence
against women, in particular domestic violence and
honour killings, with a view to helping the
authorities concerned to take the necessary
measures;
28. Urges Turkey, being party to CEDAW and the
Optional Protocol thereof, to ratify Additional
Protocol No 12 to the European Convention on Human
Rights , which deals with the prevention of
discrimination;
29. Suggests that the political parties should
review their party structures and adopt adequate
strategies to reach a better balance of women and
men in elected assemblies, including positive
measures such as quotas;
30. Encourages the political parties in Turkey to
extend the role of women in the party hierarchy
beyond the women’s branches, to give women leading
roles in the party’s organisational structure, to
raise awareness of the importance of female
political participation and to scout for, train and
support female candidates for political office;
believes that such policies could be reinforced by
cooperation with European political parties, which
would offer substantial mutual exchange of
experiences and views;
31. Welcomes the proposal to establish a Committee
on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality with full
legislative powers in the Turkish parliament, calls
urgently for the necessary legislation be adopted as
soon as possible, and invites that committee to
liaise regularly with the European Parliament’s
Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality;
32. Calls on the Turkish parliament also to ensure
the presence of women MPs in the Delegation to the
EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee;
33. Reaffirms its call on the Turkish authorities to
step up their efforts to guarantee women’s right to
education and that women whose free access to
education is hindered by difficulties stemming from
their family or their social or cultural environment
are informed of their rights; suggests to the
Turkish government that it guarantee the right to
education at primary and secondary level and
increase financial aid to parents, especially in
rural and disadvantaged areas, with a view to
encouraging them to educate their children, and
above all their daughters, given the high illiteracy
rate among women;
34. Calls on the Turkish government to take the
necessary measures, especially in rural and
disadvantaged regions, to combat illiteracy, notably
by organising information and awareness campaigns on
the importance of education and its potential
contribution to the economy and society, with
particular stress on educating girls;
35. Is of the opinion that promoting
gender-sensitive education and compulsory
participation of female pupils/students whose
families live principally in decentralised regions
would help to improve their standing in society and
open up society to gender issues; encourages,
therefore, the process of making education more
gender-sensitive, for instance by reviewing
educational materials in line with Article 5 of
CEDAW, and calls on the government to ensure that
girls and boys are taught about issues of women’s
rights and gender equality;
36. Calls on the Commission and the government of
Turkey to launch media (TV, radio, etc.) campaigns
drawing attention to the importance of respecting
women’s rights and the positive effects thereof on
society and the workplace;
37. Stresses that Turkey needs to comply fully with
the Community acquis in the field of equal pay,
equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and
women in working life and the labour market and
needs to improve women’s access to the labour market
and lifelong learning, among other measures by
fighting discrimination and ensuring the
compatibility of working and family life;
38. Calls on the Turkish government to provide
information on the situation regarding the rights of
women working in family businesses, in agriculture
or illegally;
39. Calls on the Turkish government to promote
exchanges between schools, associations and other
bodies bringing together young European and Turkish
people of both sexes;
40. Calls on the Commission and the Turkish
government to continue setting up and supporting
women’s labour and employment projects, including
projects set up by NGOs, and calls on the Turkish
government to implement national action plans on
women and employment, as is currently the practice
in the Member States;
41. Calls on trade unions and other social partners
in the European Union and Turkey to cooperate in
increasing the participation of women in the Turkish
labour force and executive functions in the various
sectors of the labour market;
42. Emphasises its intention to monitor closely the
situation of women in Turkey, to report thereon on a
yearly basis through its Committee on Women’s Rights
and Gender Equality and urges the Commission to do
the same;
43. Calls on the Commission to cover, systematically
and comprehensively, in its first report to the
European Council in December 2005 on the pace of the
reforms – which will also determine the progress of
the negotiations – the progress achieved up to that
point in changing and implementing legislation to
promote women’s rights;
44. Instructs its President to forward this
resolution to the Council and the Commission, the
governments of the Member States, the
Secretary-General of the Council of Europe and the
government and parliament of Turkey.
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