EU urges Turkey to secure gender equality and women’s rights
Due to the ongoing violation of human rights, Turkey’s potential accession to the EU continues to be controversially discussed across Europe. In the meantime, the European Parliament has therefore recently urged the country to continue its efforts in securing gender equality and women’s rights.
The report ‘A 2020 Perspective for Women in Turkey’ underpins the importance of improving the Turkish legislation to ensure equal opportunities for men and women and gender mainstreaming while considering regional disparities. Although the government appointed a Minister of Family and Social Policies, significant violence against women is still existing and includes honour killings as well as early and forced marriages. At the same time, the progress in recognising the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people publicly is still very low.
It is furthermore stressed that education is a crucial factor in the empowerment of women so that the existing gender gap in secondary education can be closed in the future, and that sexist language as well as gender stereotyping pictures and expressions in educational material have to be eliminated. To increase the female participation on the labour force, the Turkish government is called to establish a national plan of action for this issue, as well as to combat all forms of discrimination in the workplace. Due to the low political participation of women, the report additionally calls for the establishment of a quota system, ensuring a fair presentation of women on electoral lists, and the adoption of comprehensive gender equality strategies.
