Violence against women: why is the Istanbul Convention so important?

The Turkey is officially out of the Istanbul Convention on violence against women and gender-based violence. The Council of State rejected the appeal by which the opposition asked for the annulment of the decision taken last March by President Erdogan. The opposition demanded that the decision of Erdogan was revised because the decision to abandon it had not been notified to the Council of Europe. The court said it was not necessary.

Turkey is therefore no longer part of the treaty on preventing and combating gender-based violence signed on its own territory.

Against this decision, women and associations are protesting in Europe and around the world. Not One Less organizes events in Italy to denounce violence against women and LGBTQIA + subjects. “In Italy alone, over 45 women have been killed since the beginning of the year. Yet, while the National Anti-violence Plan has expired for months now, the fight against male and gender-based violence and the support for anti-violence Centers have had no place in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan ».

In Eastern Europe, many conservative parties accuse the Convention of undermining the traditional family. It is the same path indicated by Turkey. Erdogan had long been ready to leave the Istanbul Convention. According to conservatives, the measure undermines family unity, encourages divorce and leaves room for the LGBT community. The Turkish vice president, Fiat Oktay, said that withdrawal from the Convention is the solution to “uplift the dignity of Turkish women” is “in our traditions and customs”, not in the imitation of external examples.

The Istanbul Convention is 10 years old. It has been 8 since it ratified it. Second DiRe, women online against violence, the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence lives above all “thanks to the constant commitment of the women’s movement, associations, anti-violence centers, the so-called civil society, while the institutions still struggle to put its articles are really in practice, despite the fact that it is now a law of the Italian state ”. The three-year national anti-violence plan is missing in Italy after the expiry of the previous one in 2020.

The merit of the Convention is that of having recognized violence against women as a phenomenon rooted in society, beyond the political borders of the states. It indicates a homogeneous and common approach. And it establishes the link between male violence against women and gender inequality. The Convention, even if rejected by many states that have ratified it, requires governments to institute integrated policies to solve what is a social problem. The principles of the Convention are: Integrated Policies, Prevention, Victim Protection and Punishment of Offenders.

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