FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU TURKEY AND THE KURDS

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FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU, TURKEY AND THE KURDS open accession negotiations, there was a marked increase in human rights violations in Diyarbakır and the surrounding provinces. 185 Honour killings where the woman was seen to have transgressed her customary, socially defined role continue to occur with a culture of impunity protecting the murderers. In June 2006, the Diyarbakır Bar Association’s Women’s Rights Centre stated that honour killings had claimed the lives of 50 women in the past six years in the south-east region of Turkey. In the sphere of women’s rights the 2006 Penal Code contained some more positive developments, particularly given the deeply chauvinistic nature of the 2003 draft which criminalised adultery and did not adequately punish honour killings. Characterisations of offences committed against women based on patriarchal notions of chastity, ‘honour’ and shame have been replaced with definitions based on international human rights norms and recognition of women’s bodily integrity and sexual rights. Sexual crimes were denoted as crimes against the individual rather than crimes against society, marital rape was criminalised and rape was no longer legitimised where the perpetrator married the victim. These changes came about following a constructive and sustained campaign by women’s rights groups in Turkey to incorporate a gender perspective into criminal law, which was much to the credit of the burgeoning Turkish women’s movement. However, the 2006 code continued to refer to ‘custom killings’ rather than honour killings. It remains unclear whether this term covers all murders committed according to ‘honour’ codes and still allows the potential for legal justification for those committed in the name of honour. In addition, ‘genital examinations’ could be carried out if necessary for public health or, at the behest of a court, if required for the investigation of a crime. No requirement that the woman’s consent must first be attained had been stipulated. These highly invasive and discriminatory examinations have been used as a means of controlling female sexual relations, because pre-marital virginity is customarily seen as critical to a woman’s ‘honour’. The Commission’s 2008 Turkey Progress Report notes that the ‘legal framework guaranteeing women’s rights and gender equality is broadly in place’ 186 . However, the implication of the report is that this is yet to have a transformative impact on the position of women within Turkish society. The government of Turkey does appear to have been trying to address the problem of the implementation gap between the legal status of women and their actual position. 185 Diyarbakır branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD) Report, 2005. 186 European Commission 2008 Progress Report, 5 November 2008, SEC (2008) 2699, p.21 186
FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU, TURKEY AND THE KURDS Examples of such efforts include ‘gender sensitivity training’ for law enforcement and health workers 187 . However, much more still needs to be done. The 2008 Progress Report notes that ‘domestic violence, honour killings, and early and forced marriages are still a serious problem.’ 188 Given this the report’s passing reference to the fact that the number of shelters for women had increased only ‘marginally’ 189 , this appears rather worrying. More generally, (despite some progress in reducing the gender gap in primary education) 190 women in Turkey, particularly Kurdish women, lag far behind their male counterparts in areas such as education, access to meaningful employment, political representation and access to justice 191 . Women also tend to be more vulnerable than men to non-gender specific forms of discrimination. For instance, the poor level of women’s education in many deprived areas of Turkey means that women from minority groups are less likely than their male relatives to be literate in Turkish 192 . This means that the ban on the provision of public services in languages other than Turkish, such as the Kurdish dialects, particularly disenfranchises women. Internally Displaced Persons In the period after 2004 the Turkish government made considerable strides to address the internal displacement situation. It undertook a national survey on the number and conditions of IDPs; drafted a national IDP strategy; adopted a law on compensation for property damages; and put together a comprehensive pilot plan of action for IDPs at the provincial level 193 . The improvement in the security situation in the south-east (at least until 2007) also provided better conditions for the return of IDPs to their homes. However, the implementation of the compensation law came in for criticism, due to reports that difference in implementation between provinces made the scheme inequitable 194 . 187 European Commission 2008 Progress Report, 5 November 2008, SEC (2008) 2699, p.20 188 European Commission 2008 Progress Report, 5 November 2008, SEC (2008) 2699, p.20 189 European Commission 2008 Progress Report, 5 November 2008, SEC (2008) 2699, p.20 190 European Commission 2008 Progress Report, 5 November 2008, SEC (2008) 2699, p.20 191 European Commission 2008 Progress Report, 5 November 2008, SEC (2008) 2699, p.20 192 European Parliament Project: The Increase in Kurdish Women Committing Suicide – Kurdish Human Rights Project - p.11-12 193 Progress on national IDP policy paves way for further reforms – IDMC: www.internal-displacement.org 26/07/2007 194 EU Commission Turkey Progress Report 2007, p.24 187
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FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU TURKEY AND THE KURDS

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