As a response to Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, Gülseren Onanç, the Founding Chair of the SES Equality and Solidarity Association, underlines the unconstitutional nature of the exit and makes a case for defending the Convention.
Gülseren Onanç
Finally, the 1st of July came, and Turkey officially exited the Istanbul Convention. Since April 1st, the women’s movement has done everything they possibly can to reverse the extraordinary and radical decision to withdraw from the International Convention. Despite the objections from women’s organizations and politicians close to the AKP (Justice and Development Party), the president did not give up on his decision. Patriarchal hegemony did not back down.
“Why did Turkey leave the Istanbul Convention?” We have not heard a clear answer to this question from the president who decided to leave. Let’s ask the question in reverse: What did it mean to sign an advanced, egalitarian and progressive contract like the Istanbul Convention? As the women protesting the withdrawal decision in the squares asked to the president: “What made you fear the Istanbul Convention?”
The Istanbul Convention means gender equality, human dignity, equality, freedom, democracy, the rule of law, human rights and protecting the rights of minorities. Being a party to the Istanbul Convention means that Turkey is party to international law.
What does it mean to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention?
When we present this framework, we can better understand what it means to renounce the Istanbul Convention. The process of withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention reveals that a patriarchal hegemony has been reached in Turkey, both in terms of substance and of procedure. It means the disappearance of the principle of separation of powers as the withdrawal occurred unlawfully, with the decision solely made by the president. Women’s rights activists challenged this act by emphasizing its unlawful procedure and issuing annulment cases to the Council of State.
Violation of separation of powers principle
The Council of State asked the Presidency for a defence of its decision. The defence itself was a constitutional violation. The president ignored the principle of separation of powers and said that Parliamentary approval is not required to annul international agreements. This amounts to a formal declaration that the executive body is above the legislature and the judiciary.
Increasing the influence of right-wing politics and political Islam
The decision to withdraw from the Convention also means increasing the influence of right-wing politics and political Islam; in the face of the gains of the women’s movement that arose in the world and Turkey after 1980, right-wing politics gained strength in Poland and Hungary in Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia Pacific and America. A partnership was formed between political Islam and ultraconservative Catholicism over the opposition to gender equality. Catholic Hungarian Prime Minister Orban and Muslim Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed on gender issues. In Turkey, the fact that a radical Islamist mass, which is not even 1% of the electorate, is more effective than the mass of over 65% who support the Istanbul Convention, means that the influence of political Islam has increased beyond the electorate of the People’s Alliance. The constitutional professor, İbrahim Kaboğlu, drew attention to the great danger of the judicial package which the government is now attempting to legislate. He said that the package envisages different punishments for married and unmarried women.
Moving away from International Law
These developments mean that Turkey is effectively introverted and outside the control of international law and organization: The message of Turkey, captured in its withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, means that it will not be a party to international law and will defy international organisations, especially the Council of the European Union and the European Union, and that it will turn inward and thus reject the international control mechanism. As a matter of fact, the “National Action Plan for Combating Violence Against Women”, announced by President Erdogan on 1 July, is an effort to replace international law with a national plan. It does not give confidence to the representatives of women’s organizations to leave the Istanbul Convention and replace it with a national action plan.
What will we do after the Istanbul Convention?
In order to seek an answer to this question, we, as SES Equality and Solidarity Association, brought together valuable representatives of the women’s movement and a very respectable Professor of Law at Koç University, Bertil Emrah Oder.
There is no question of returning to the pre-Istanbul Convention period.
Oder, who is also advocate for women’s rights, said, “After the Istanbul Convention has come before us and it has been written so competently, so concretely, with such a clear, clear and progressive point of view, we cannot go back to the pre-Istanbul Convention. Return is not possible. Even if the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention has taken place and there is a great political debate here, the Istanbul Convention will not lose anything of its value, regardless of the outcome of this discussion. The Istanbul Convention will not be lost in a major political debate. Because, in terms of these achievements and the stage reached, from the experiences gained, I think that there will be no such thing as going back, and I believe that both those who are against the Istanbul Convention and those who are in favour of it should understand this.