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Good Practices in Legislation on VAW in Turkey
Pinar IlkkaracanWomen for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways
UN Expert Group Meeting on Good Practices on Legislation on VAW, Vienna, May 26-28, 2008
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Legal Reforms – political struggle
• Difficult political environment • Religious right government since
2002• Decentralization• Economic policies, privatization
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Legal Reforms – political struggle
• Strong independent women’s movement
• Extensive networking of women’s NGOs• Effective, long term campaigning• Effective use of the media• Using windows of opportunity at the
right time, in a proactive manner
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Extensive Legal Reforms in the past decade
• 1998 enactment of Protection orders • 2001 reform of the Turkish Civil
Code• 2004 reform of the Turkish Penal
Code• Now: Campaign on the constitution
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Campaign on the Constitution
• State responsible for realizing de-facto equality
• The right to sexual orientation
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Protection orders 1998, amended in 2007
• Problem of the title ‘The Law to protect the Family”•Definition of survivors - includes married or separated women and their children – even if the partner is not living under the same roof. Problem: does not explicitly mention divorced women, de facto relationships
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Protection orders 1998, amended in 2007
• Definition of perpetrators – includes not only the spouse, but all family members living under the same roof
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Protection orders 1998, amended in 2007
• Should provide guidelines on the principle of urgent decision• Lack of monitoring – for ex. in 2003, 6147 women have applied, but no report on outcomes• Monitored by women’s NGOs through dissemination of precedent cases, but not necessarily binding
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The Reform of the Turkish Civil Code, 2001
• Full equality in the family• Marriage age• Forced marriages: annulment of marriage possible within the first 5 years of marriage• Matrimonial property regime – entitles women to equal share of the assets accumulated throughout the marriage
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The Reform of the Turkish Penal Code - 2004:You cannot write the Turkish Penal Code without us!
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Our bodies and sexuality belong to ourselves!
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The Campaign on the Reform of the Turkish Penal Code
2001- 2004• Holistic approach• Aiming to reform the philosophy of the law so as to recognize and protect the right to bodily and sexual integrity • Word by word formulated articles
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The Reform of the Turkish Penal Code, 2004
• More than 40 amendments• Elimination of all notions related to honor, morality, chastity, decency, etc.• Elimination of articles granting sentence reductions in case the perpetrator married the victim
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The Reform of the Turkish Penal Code, 2004
• Sexual crimes defined as sexual assault that breaches a person’s bodily inviolability
• No requirement of insertion of an organ or other object
• Marital rape criminalized
• Elimination of provisions referring to consent of the survivor
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The Reform of the Turkish Penal Code, 2004
• Elimination of provisions referring to consent
•Customary killings defined as aggravated homicide (not honor killings!)
• Elimination of articles discriminating between married/unmarried women, virgin or non-virgin women
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Implementation
• Research shows that less attention paid to collection of medical evidence in cases where the perpetrator is a family member
• Lack of clear procedural guidelines on evidence collection, including medical evidence
• Survivors subjected to medical examination more than once
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Implementation
• Need for a coordinated, integrated state policy to eliminate violence against women with specific targets, in a specified time frame
• The role of the international / regional bodies in monitoring
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Good Practices in Legislation on VAW in Turkey
Pinar IlkkaracanWomen for Women’s Human Rights – New
Ways
UN Expert Group Meeting Vienna, May 26-28, 2008