UN Women presents gender review of key laws to Turkish Parliament

Project Coordinator and Representative of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Zeina Hilal, Member of CEDAW Committee, Patten, EOC Chairperson Radiye Sezer Katırcıoğlu, Member of CEDAW Committee and Chairperson of GREVIO, Prof. Dr. Feride Acar and UN Women Project Coordinator Neşe Çakır. Photo: UN Women/Ebru Demirel

To ensure that Turkey’s laws advance gender equality and women’s economic and political participation, a UN Women project jointly implemented with the Inter-Parliament Union (IPU) and the Committee on Equality of Opportunity for Women and Men (EOC) of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TGNA), regularly reviews key Turkish laws.

Funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the project, Gender Equality in Political Leadership and Participation in Turkey, presented to the EOC and parliamentarians, legislative experts and ministerial staff a gender equality review of Turkey’s “Working Life” cluster of legislation. Hosted by EOC Chairperson Ms. Radiye Sezer Katırcıoğlu, the review was held in Ankara on 1-3 May.

Legislative experts and representatives of Ministries attended the meeting. Photo: UN Women/Ebru Demirel

The Working Life cluster includes: the Unemployment Insurance Law (4447), the Law on Trials of Officials and Other Civil Servants (4483), the Social Insurance Law for Agricultural Workers (2925), the Turkish Labour Institution Law (4904) and the Trade Unions of Public Workers and Collective Agreement Law (4688).

Ms. Pramila Patten, Member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), said that the legislative reviews found:

• The law on the unemployment insurance system must change and remove the barriers low-income women face in receiving income support during periods of unemployment.
• It is necessary to enhance contribution payment capacity of agricultural workers and of women agricultural workers especially to ensure the highest insurance coverage level.
• It is extremely important to integrate a gender equality perspective into the employment advocacy activities of the Turkish Employment Organisation.
• The Law on Trials of Civil Servants and Other Public Officials is written in a gender neutral way. There is no indication that its impact may differ in any manner whatsoever with regard to men as opposed to women.
• The adoption of temporary special measures are needed to overcome direct and indirect discrimination against women taking up leadership positions in trade unions.

Legislative experts from Ministries discussed the legislation that have been reviewed and presented at the meeting. Photo: UN Women/Ebru Demirel

Across Turkey, women continue to face leadership and political participation challenges.

Despite being an early adopter of key international commitments to women’s rights, Turkey’s laws are often enacted without full consideration for their impact on gender equality or women’s political and economic participation.

Turkey’s gender gap overall places it 130th of 145 countries, according to the 2015 Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum. Turkey ranks 105^th in educational attainment, 105^th in political empowerment, and 131^th in economic participation and opportunity.

Women make up only 14.7 per cent of members of the current Parliament, a figure well below the global average of 22 per cent and the 30 per cent target set by the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 1995, and a decline from the previous Parliament’s 17.8 per cent.

UN Women Project Coordinator Neşe Çakır said the reviews were conducted in the previous phase of the project: “We review these laws from a gender equality perspective and put these reviews on parliamentarians’ agenda so they can prepare legislative amendments with a gender equality perspective.”

Zeina Hilal, Project Coordinator and Representative of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), addresses parliamentarians of the Committee on Equality of Opportunity for Women and Men (EOC). Photo: UN Women/Ebru Demirel

EOC Chairperson Ms. Radiye Sezer Katırcıoğlu stressed the importance of the review meetings: “It is very important to promote women’s participation in decision-making mechanisms. We aim to increase the number of women decision-makers and the number of women deputies,” said Ms. Katırcıoğlu.

Member of the CEDAW Committee and Chairperson of Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO), Prof. Dr. Feride Acar provided information about the international conventions on gender equality.

Stressing the importance of parliamentary action to advance gender equality, Ms. Zeina Hilal, Project Coordinator and Representative of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), said: “Parliamentarians – both men and women – are accountable for women’s and girl’s rights and strong parliamentary action is needed to advance gender equality.”