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Turkey’s Legislative Reforms to Address Violence Against Women, and the EU: Uphill Struggles, Hard-Won Achievements and a Promising Ally

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Feminist Framing of Europeanisation

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Abstract

This chapter investigates Turkey’s legislative reforms addressing the issue of violence against women (VAW) with a particular focus on the role of the EU. Considering the persistent domestic advocacy and the multiplicity of external factors/actors (e.g., the UN, Council of Europe and EU) that would potentially contribute to the reform process since the 1990s, the study asks if, when and how the EU actually has become a causal factor for domestic change. The chapter finds that in the adoption of the first-ever law addressing VAW (Law No. 4320) in 1998, the EU has no clear presence in the domestic context of reform. Gender equality reforms in the early 2000s and the adoption of the most comprehensive law addressing VAW (Law No. 6284) coincided with the EU accession process in Turkey. During this period, the EU gradually improved its engagement, facilitated the reform process by utilising two pathways of influence, namely conditionality (interest-driven pathway) and capacity building (norm-driven pathway). As with this new approach, the EU intermingled well with the domestic advocacy and proved that it could be an ever-promising ally of women and the women’s movement in Turkey.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Gender-based violence against women, as defined by the Council of Europe, Convention on Preventing and Combatting Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), article 3a, “a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women and shall mean all acts of gender-based violence that result in, or are likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”.

  2. 2.

    The only and most explicit reference to VAW in the EU Treaties appeared in Lisbon Treaty’s Declaration No. 19 annexed to the Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference. Referring to Article 8 of TFEU, the EU member states have committed themselves to combat all forms of domestic violence and to develop effective measures.

  3. 3.

    The international normative framework to which the EU adheres mainly covers the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) (1979); the CEDAW Committee’s General Recommendations (e.g., No. 12; No. 19; No. 35); the UN’s Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993); the UN’s Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995); and the Optional Protocol to CEDAW (2000).

  4. 4.

    These Directives include “Directive 2011/36/EU on combating trafficking”, “Directive 2012/29/EU on the rights and protection of victims of crime”, “Directive 2011/99/EU on the European protection order in criminal matters” and “Regulation (EU) No 606/2013 on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters”.

  5. 5.

    While ratifying the CEDAW on 11.06.1985, Turkey put reservations on its Article 15 paragraphs 2 and 4 and Article 16 paragraphs 1 (c), (d), (f) and (g), on the grounds that these articles are not compatible with Turkish Civil Code Family law. Turkey removed these reservations in 1999.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of International Relations, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey

    Burcu Özdemir Sarıgil

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  1. Burcu Özdemir Sarıgil
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Correspondence to Burcu Özdemir Sarıgil .

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  1. Department of Political Science and International Relations, Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Rahime Süleymanoğlu-Kürüm

  2. Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    F. Melis Cin

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Özdemir Sarıgil, B. (2021). Turkey’s Legislative Reforms to Address Violence Against Women, and the EU: Uphill Struggles, Hard-Won Achievements and a Promising Ally. In: Süleymanoğlu-Kürüm, R., Cin, F.M. (eds) Feminist Framing of Europeanisation. Gender and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52770-9_8

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