In line with the decisions taken at the 1st Council, the 2nd Assembly of Women’s Shelters was held on 27-28 November 1999, hosted by Mersin Independent Women’s Association with the initiative of Mor Çatı Women’s Shelter Foundation and support from Heinrich Böll Foundation. On the occasion of “25 November – International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, more than 100 women from 28 women organizations from various provinces in Turkey and TRNC joined the Assembly which arrived at the below conclusions:
- Participants of the 2nd Assembly of Women’s Shelters stressed the need to establish common principles of work at the most fundamental level between independent women’s groups and organizations and women centres affiliated with the state (SHÇEK- Social Services and Child Protection Agency) and local governments. They also indicated that the work should be developed in a way not to hinder the independence and creativity of volunteering women groups and organizations.
- In this framework, all participants agreed on the necessity of having these activities be pro-women and be carried out by women irrespective of age, sex, sexual preference, class, ethnic group and profession. It was agreed as a principle that volunteering or official institutions with a mandate to combat violence against women and provide support and solidarity to women should seek certain job requirements for women employees who continuously work on the applications for assistance filed by women. As a job requirement, professional education is significant but should not be considered enough on its own (nor should it be a mandatory requirement) for recruitment. These job requirements should include, above all, “having a woman’s perspective”, “being experienced in working with women”, and “being in contact with independent women’s movement” in addition to the professional education.
- The participants emphasized the importance of not questioning women and instead showing them support and solidarity without interfering in their choices and preferences in life. They also stressed the need to establish mechanisms that will provide free legal and psychological counselling to women.
- Independent women’s groups at the Assembly noted that the draft circular prepared by SHÇEK aimed at controlling (and in due course incorporating) independent women’s shelters in every aspect, ranging from their establishment to functioning and staff working conditions, hence runs the risk of destroying the independence of the shelters and leaving their fate to the discretion of political ruling power, the changing policies and cadres of bureaucracy. Consequently, the draft circular was rejected in its entirety.The rules of functioning set out by the circular are against international principles such as the CONFIDENTIALITY of the information about women who apply to shelters and of the locations of the shelters. What needs to be done is to support the efforts of volunteering women’s groups and organizations, in particular women’s shelters and women’s counselling centres, by providing all kinds of legal assistance and financial means, as opposed to seeking to control the volunteering work on combatting violence against women or placing it under the organization of official institutions.
- It is imperative to adhere to the 1986 decision by the European Parliament to “open a shelter for every ten thousand women and girls”. Since we have been striving to achieve accession to the European Union in recent years, we need to have more than 3000 shelters per our population; nevertheless, we are obviously far from satisfying this need as the current number of shelters and women’s guesthouses stands at 11 (2 independent, 2 of them are affiliated with a municipality and 7 are under SHÇEK). Therefore, unconditional financial support should be provided to primarily existing and future independent women’s shelters and women’s groups. New women’s shelters should be opened under the structure of SHÇEK and other public agencies and institutions, while also increasing support to ensure service efficiency in existing ones.
- Funds earmarked from public budgets, national funds and international funds that are distributed and overseen by public institutions should be transparent in their use and distribution. Women’s organizations and groups combatting violence against women should be prioritized for funding.
- The draft “Local Administration Reform Law Proposal” should specifically refer to women’s counselling centres and shelters among social service and assistance institutions that are in the pipeline of local governments. The law should allow local governments to directly open and run these centres and shelters; in addition, it should also allow independent women’s organizations to do so by developing certain protocols and providing required support.
- Centres and shelters should be opened to provide support and services for girls who are survivors of incest and rape, child mothers and women whose lives are at risk on the ground of customs or honour etc. Existing centres and shelters should be supported.
- The earthquakes of 17 August and 12 November have exacerbated the problems of women living in the quake-stricken regions; therefore, public opinion should be built about violence against women living in the earthquake zones; and activities carried out with affected women should be monitored and supported.
- A document signed by Council participants is faxed to the Ministry of Interior demanding that joint action groups be established to address all news reports, laws, behaviours, incidents and policies regarding legal, social, psychological, physical, economic and political violence against women. To this end, the participants firstly demand that Bolu Governor Nusret Miroğlu be dismissed from office to account for slapping a woman in the face in the earthquake region; and that Gonca Kuriş, who is still unaccounted for and whose fate remains unknown, be found.
- A campaign should be conducted to ensure that the Draft Amendment to the Civil Code, which was opened for public debate on 17 February 1998, is fully passed, with all amendments included, by the GNAT (Grand National Assembly of Turkey) and goes into effect. Amendments include: i) aligning the number of articles in the draft to the original version, ii) raising the age for marriage to 18, iii) including “family pressure placed on women” to the grounds of annulment of marriage, iv) in divorce cases, authorising the court situated in the province where the plaintiff resides, v) allowing confidential sessions when requested by a party in divorce proceedings and annulment of marriage; vi) establishing family specialized courts as soon as possible.
- The State is responsible for domestic and non-domestic violence against women and should take due measures accordingly. Meetings should be scheduled with the members of parliament and the Directorate General for Women’s Status and Problems to discuss: i) changing the title of the law no. 4320 on the Protection of the Family to “the Law on Protection Order Against Violence” or “the Protection Law no. 4320”, which would be in line with other similar laws across the world; ii) clarifying the issue of “fee” which causes setbacks in practice, as suggested by the amendment proposal, which is endorsed by our council and drafted on the basis of two years of experience in the implementation of the current law; iii) explicitly stating that all enforcement proceedings required in the application process and the enforcement of decisions under this law are exempt from fee; iv) replacing the term “at-fault spouse” to “aggressor/perpetrator of violence” and using the term “victim of violence” for those experiencing violence; v) replacing the term “spouse” with “individual”; and vi) ensuring that the implementation of a decision is monitored either by a pronouncement or a notification.
- In a joint agreement with sex workers, we demand that the “Regulation to Combat Prostitution and Diseases Transmitted Through Prostitution”, not be increasingly invoked; in fact, it is our wish and condition that it be repealed in the long term. Furthermore, attempts to introduce or increase the severity of legal and punitive sanctions against sex workers and persons with different sexual preferences should be stopped.
- The laws on Turkish Employment Agency and SHÇEK should also address social assistance provided for women. In addition, the percentages of quotas for nurseries, pre-schools/nursery schools and day care centres in every province should be increased to support women in financial distress as well as women who are sent to counselling centres or women’s shelters.
- Our Council calls for drafting an “2000-2001 ACTION PLAN TO PREVENT VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN” covering all volunteering and official agencies and institutions across the country. As concluded in the 1st Council, violence against women cannot be dismissed as a “private matter” and “a domestic problem”. Country wide policies and bodies should be established as soon as possible to prevent violence against women which is a social problem. Given the importance and the urgency of the matter, the Assembly set up a preparatory commission and decided to immediately start the groundwork for an action plan.
In this framework,
The Assembly decided on the following:
- Commissions that have a women’s perspective should be established, and vocational trainings should be provided on the subject of violence against women in professional organizations or institutions for all professional groups that interact with women in person and directly affect women as part of their work and services (law enforcement, lawyers, judges, prosecutors, psychologists, social workers, doctors, press members, advertisers, architects and city planners, local administrators and lawmakers etc.); and a common fund should be established in every organisation and/or jointly with other women groups;
- Information, guidance and support should be provided to all women and those who identify as women, who are survivors of harassment and/or rape that occur in all living spaces, including home, outdoors, school, workplace, dormitory, police station, hospital and tent cities, regardless of age, profession, language, religion, ethnicity, sexual preference and disability. Such support should also be available to women’s relatives.
In line with the decisions taken at the 1st Council, a working group is established at the 2nd Council to provide communications and coordination among volunteering or official groups and institutions working in the field of combatting violence against women; and a group is authorized to find a solution to the funding problem and set operating principles that will ensure the continuity of the group.