Turkey to sign international treaty on violence against women

The Turkish Foreign Ministry will sign an international treaty designed to prevent and combat violence against women during a meeting of the Council of Europe Ministers on May 11 in Istanbul.  

The Council of Europe’s convention sets out standards for states to act with integrated policies to tackle gender-based violent crimes and promote international cooperation. Governments ratifying the treaty will have to take necessary legislative or other measures to ensure criminalizing acts such as domestic violence, violence in public places, sexual harassment, forced marriage, “honor” crimes, rape and genital mutilation.

The convention proposes the establishment of state-wide telephone help lines that would operate around the clock to provide confidential advice to anonymous callers.

The treaty defines “domestic violence” as all acts of physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence that occur within the family or domestic unit or between former or current spouses or partners, whether or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence with the victim.

The draft text also calls for specific monitoring mechanisms to check implementation of the convention.

Turkey will also host a conference on the reform process of the European Court of Human Rights between April 26 and 27 in İzmir. The conference will include a preliminary assessment of the impact of Protocol No. 14 and will study the achievements made by the reform process launched by the Interlaken conference in February 2010 and reflect upon further ideas for improvement prior to May 11.

Turkey, which has held the six-month rotating presidency of the European Council, will hand over the presidency to Ukraine on May 11.


/Hurriyet Daily News/