CHP's Taşcıer: 'Femicides Are Not Fate, But a Result of Political Choices'

Gamze Taşcıer, a lawmaker from Turkey's Republican People's Party (CHP), asserts that femicides and violence against women have escalated since Turkey's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention five years ago. She attributes this surge to political decisions rather than isolated acts of anger.

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The past five years have revealed a heavy toll on women's right to life. We wake up to a new femicide report every day, see the veil of suspicion over suspicious female deaths thicken, and witness women being killed despite repeatedly seeking protection.

Taşcıer highlighted the convention's significance, stating that the past five years have shown a "heavy toll" on women's right to life. She noted the daily reports of femicides, the increased ambiguity surrounding suspicious female deaths, and women being killed despite seeking protection. "This is not a coincidence," Taşcıer stated, emphasizing that male violence against women is a structural human rights issue stemming from gender inequality, a culture of impunity, and political choices.

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Male violence against women is not a sum of individual outbursts of anger, family disputes, or isolated incidents. Femicides are a structural human rights problem that grows as a result of gender inequality, a culture of impunity, and political choices.

The convention, she explained, historically acknowledged this reality by obligating states to prevent violence, protect women, investigate perpetrators, and implement policies for women's equal citizenship. Taşcıer criticized the withdrawal as a "highly wrong political choice" that sent a message to women that they are less safe and to perpetrators that the state is retreating from the fight against violence.

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This decision turned into a highly wrong political choice that sent the message to women, 'you are no longer as safe as you used to be,' and to perpetrators, 'the state is stepping back in this struggle.'

She argued that the withdrawal weakened the political will to prioritize women's right to life, deepened the sense of impunity, rendered protection mechanisms ineffective, and sidelined violence prevention policies. While acknowledging that Law No. 6284 on protection remains in effect, Taşcıer stressed that laws are meaningless without enforcement. She pointed to issues such as delayed protection orders, inadequate monitoring, insufficient electronic tagging, unscientific risk assessments, a shortage of women's shelters, and a lack of social workers, psychologists, and law enforcement personnel.

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The existence of laws in a state of law is meaningless on its own. What matters is their implementation.