According to the 2021 ‘Change Report’ published by the social change platform Change.Org, people mostly demand change in issues such as the protection of the Istanbul Convention, education, animal rights, climate and environmental crises in Turkey.
The world’s largest social change platform, Change.org, published report on Turkey, revealing in which areas people want change in Turkey.
The report highlights the demands of the people for change, such as most-signed campaigns in 2021, the campaigns that were successful and effective, and the distribution of the campaigns according to the areas of activism.
According to the report, a total of 26 thousand 781 campaigns were launched in Change.org Turkey in 2021 and 13 million 153 thousand 590 signatures were received. 198 campaigns from different fields of activism achieved success with 1 million 12 thousand 287 signatures.
The campaign launched by the ‘We Want to Live’ Initiative to protect the Istanbul Convention was the most-signed campaign of both 2020 and 2021.
The campaign named “We do not give up on the Istanbul Convention, we will not give up!” became the 3rd most-signed campaign in Turkey with more than 1 million signatures.
The power of the women’s movement
According to Change.org Turkey General Director Dr. Uygar Özesmi, this shows how strong and determined the women’s movement is in Turkey.
“Women fighting for this issue on all kinds of platforms also actively used Change.org. ‘We Want to Live’ Initiative, which started the campaign, delivered the signatures to the Parliament. Even though Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, the fact that the activism has not ended reveal that change does not mean only getting the desired result in the campaign. As with this campaign, awareness is increasing thanks to the discussion and visibility of demands for change in society.”
The highest demand for change is in ‘education’
According to the report, this year, the most-signed campaigns were launched in the field of education. 1 million 596 thousand 551 people signed 2 thousand 938 campaigns launched in this area. Campaigns on education obtained the most success.
Education was followed by the areas of health, animal rights and economic justice, in terms of the number of campaigns launched.
Most-signed campaign: Animal rights
The highest number of signatures received on the campaigns of animal rights. Issues such as punishing those who commit violence against animals and closing zoos were among the animal rights campaigns that came out last year.
1842 campaigns were carried out for animal rights throughout the year, with a total of 3 million 380 thousand 160 signatures.