full version - World Organisation Against Torture

Violence Against Women: 10 Reports / Year 2003OMCT is particularly troubled by the widespread problem of domesticviolence in Turkey, with as many as 90% of women being subjected toviolence at the hands of their husbands and boyfriends. In order to effectivelycombat domestic violence, the government of Turkey must developand pass a comprehensive law addressing the problem. Such a law shouldinclude criminal penalties for men who beat their wives and girlfriends,protections for women who report domestic violence (such as shelters andother social services), establishment of gender sensitive interrogationtechniques, training of police officers about the particularities of domesticviolence cases, active recruitment of female police officers to handledomestic violence cases, rules protecting women who testify, minimumpenalties for persons found guilty of domestic violence, and wide distributionof the law to the women and men of Turkey to ensure that they areaware of their rights.OMCT is deeply concerned that marital rape is not a specific crime inTurkey and insists that the government of Turkey should specificallycriminalize the act of rape within marriage.The correlation between a woman’s sexuality and her family’s honour createsa climate of social acceptance for extreme and violent measures takenin order to control the sexual behaviour of women and girls. The mostconcrete manifestations of this restrictive social code are crimes committedin the name of honour and practices such as virginity testing andforced marriages. Related to these practices is the extremely high rate ofsuicide among girls and women who justifiably fear retribution as a resultof having transgressed social mores or who feel that they have no otherchoice if they wish to escape from a situation of forced marriage.OMCT notes that the structure of the Turkish Criminal Code placeswomen’s sexuality under the control of the family. While other forms ofviolence are considered under the title “Felonies against individuals,” rapeand other forms of sexual violence are classified as “Felonies AgainstPublic Decency and Family Order.” Moreover, in this section, several articlesrefer to the virginity of victims as a constitutive element of the crime.Although the Turkish Criminal Code does not explicitly provide for adefence based on honour, several provisions of the Code contain defencesthat are regularly used in order for the perpetrators of crimes committedin the name of honour to receive reduced sentences. Due to the general372