İBB Hosts 'Workshop on Combating Violence Against Women'

İBB hosted the 'Workshop on Combating Violence Against Women', attended by local governments, academics and NGOs across Turkey. Speaking at the workshop, IMM Secretary General Can Akın Çağlar said that violence against women, gender inequality and women's employment are still among the top agenda items in Turkey. Underlining that local governments have a major role in combating violence against women, Çağlar said, “Collaborations with our non-governmental organizations and women's associations enable us to identify problems better and produce more effective solutions. We will never stop working together to create a just and equal society by acting with a common mind. The host of the second workshop in 2021, Izmit Mayor Fatma Hürriyet Kaplan, said, “Unfortunately, women who have been subjected to violence, harassed, raped and killed today remain statistical data. But they have a name," he said.

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) hosted the “Workshop on Combating Violence Against Women”. Metropolitan municipalities, district municipalities, gender equality and women's units of district municipalities, district city councils, headmen, Istanbul City Council, Istanbul Planning Agency, Istanbul Foundation, Istanbul Volunteers, Civil Gender and women's work units of social organizations, cooperatives, professional chambers and universities participated. Dilek İmamoğlu was among those who watched the workshop, in which many people who worked, wrote, thought, developed projects, produced ideas and struggled on women's rights.

CANAN GÜLLÜ : “REGULATIONS MADE REMAIN PROMISED”

Canan Güllü, President of the Federation of Women's Associations of Turkey, made the first speech at the workshop held at the Sadabad Hall of the Haliç Congress Center. Expressing that women's associations are subject to various inspections, Güllü said, “The equivalent process of the feminism struggle that spread to the world has been followed. No one has fought for his right without dictating and has not given up his fight. He did not bow to the changing world order in the 1990s, stood up straight, and voiced his discourses of equality with a high pitch. As non-governmental organizations intimidated by the prohibited inspections in the March 8 marches, they continue to express their discourse without being a political party by reacting to wrongs without fear of the government. Nowadays, while women are killed with all kinds of ill-treatment and torture, while violence against women is increasing day by day, it is seen that the judicial reforms made, the regulations made in the Turkish Penal Code remain in words, and the judicial mechanism, which does not reflect the judicial practices, is becoming more politicized and losing its independence. For this reason, efforts to limit alimony, efforts to bring amnesty to early marriages and the 4+4+4 system shed light on support mechanisms instead of producing solutions to the problem of girls moving away from education.”

“MUNICIPALITIES HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO”

The host of the second workshop in 2021, Izmit Mayor Fatma Hürriyet Kaplan, was the President of IMM. Ekrem İmamoğlu He started his speech by thanking Dilek İmamoğlu and his wife Dilek İmamoğlu and continued as follows:

“In November 2021, we signed the “Domestic Violence Emergency Aid Protocol with the participation of nearly 40 municipalities, hosted by our Izmit Municipality, in cooperation with the Federation of Women's Associations of Turkey. I believe that this workshop we have realized is an important milestone in the women's struggle. There are many challenges that women have to deal with in all areas of life. Unfortunately, women who have been subjected to violence, harassed, raped and murdered remain statistical data today. Yet they have a name. Emine Bulut, Şule Çet, Ceren Özdemir, Özgecan Aslan and many more female friends. Our struggle is that these names are never forgotten, that new names are not added every day. We also start our struggle locally, produce our solution proposals locally and apply them locally. This is the main motto of these workshops. I want to appeal to all our women. If you are a victim of domestic violence, do not forget that you are not alone. We say that women should be empowered so that humanity will become stronger. This requires full equality. Equality also starts locally. That's why we, the municipalities, have a lot of work to do.”

“IT IS AN UNFORGETTABLE DECISION TO EXIT THE ISTANBUL CONVENTION”

Stating that they will never stop working together to create a just and equal society by acting with a common mind at the workshop, IMM Secretary General Can Akın Çağlar said that there is a long way to go in the field of women's rights and violence against women. Despite this negative picture, Çağlar stated that further steps were taken with decisions such as exiting the Istanbul Convention, and said, “The Republic of Turkey will return from this unfortunate decision as soon as possible, and it will continue to move forward rapidly towards ensuring women's rights and gender equality, as in many other fields. will begin,” he said.

WE WILL ALL WORK TOGETHER TO ESTABLISH AN EQUAL SOCIETY

Emphasizing that local governments are of great importance in the fight against violence against women, Çağlar said, “We see that many of our municipalities carry out very valuable works and put forward very valuable projects. Collaborations with our non-governmental organizations and women's associations also enable us to identify problems better and produce more effective solutions. We will never stop working together to create a just and equal society by acting with a common mind.”

ROAD MAP SPECIFIC

Noting that İBB has implemented projects that we attach great importance to ensure gender equality, İBB Secretary General Çağlar said, “On this basis, we have announced our Local Equality Action Plan in order to build an inclusive, equal, fair and livable city for all social groups that cannot access services equally. . We are following the works within this plan, which we created with the participation of our local Equality Monitoring Unit and our external stakeholders, and which draws our roadmap for the years 2021-2024.”