ANKARA - Berrin Sönmez, a member of the Women’s Platform for Equality (EŞİK), emphasized the importance of the Civil Law for women, which is on the agenda of the government and where discussions are also carried out. Berrin said: ‘’We need to carefully embrace to the Civil Law. We do not want them to try to change any of the women’s gains with legislation. We want to say that ‘do not touch the laws, enforce the laws’.’’

 

Since the day it came to power, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has not stopped targeting women’s gains. The government abolished the Istanbul Convention, one of the biggest gains of women, with a Presidential Decree on the night of 20 March. After July 1, women want to be prepared for the Civil Law, which was put on the agenda of the government after the abolition of the convention and discussions were also held.

 

Berrin Sönmez, a member of the Women’s Platform for Equality, made evaluations about the Civil Law that the government plans to bring to the agenda with the opening of the parliament on October 1.

 

‘We are analyzing reports’

 

Starting a study called ‘’We have our eyes on you’’ on the work in the parliament and Berrin reminded that they share their observations with the public in a report at regular intervals, said: ‘’Let the parliamentarians be aware of their own importance. We carried out this monitoring study so that political parties could work more seriously, knowing that we did not give up on the assembly. What are all parliamentarians doing on women’s problems and about the attacks on women’s gains? What does he/she say? Who said what on the agenda? What was done in which party group? How was the agenda of women reflected in the parliament? We have published ten reports on a very wide range from employment to combating violence to education, and now we are preparing the analysis of these reports.’’

 

‘Istanbul Convention is still in force’

 

Emphasizing that there are misperceptions that the Istanbul Convention has been completely withdrawn and that the convention is still in force, Berrin summarizes the reason for this as follows: ‘’We say that the contract is still in force. Because the Law Numbered 6251, which approves the acceptance of the convention, is still in effect and the President’s decision cannot abolish this law, he does not have the authority to abolishment the law. In addition, the lawsuits brought before the Council of State continue. More than 200 lawsuits were filed with the Council of State. The Council of State only responded to one of the lawsuits filed by Meral Akşener. The Council of State rejected the stay of execution. In fact, it has not made any statement about approaching yet. Until the cases are concluded in the Council of State, the provisions of the Istanbul Convention must be implemented.’’

 

‘The parliament made very limited and insufficient efforts’

 

Stating that although the parliament was in a very important position in the withdrawal process from the Istanbul Convention, it was also revealed in the reports that it was not brought to the agenda enough, and said: ‘’Every party ignores it to a great extent, and in this withdrawal process we saw that the few MPs defend in that showpiece commission established only to combat violence. These were extremely limited and insufficiet efforts. Now the parliament needs to dust off a little more and stop ignoring social needs. EŞİK continues to do some work for this. We are preparing for the opening of the parliament.’’

 

‘Be prepared for the content of the 5th judicial package’

 

Berrin, who pointed out that the 5th Judicial Reform Package from the ruling wing increased the concerns about the other gains of women in this period when the parliament would reopen, and underlined that although there is no definite information about what could happen in this package, it is necessary to be prepared. Berrin said: ‘’We are worried if they can include some issues that will require changes in the Civil Law into this package. This concern is partly due to the habit of retracting the same issues over and over again for years, and bringing them back up again when there is a reaction. They did the same during the Istanbul Convention process.’’

 

‘They also object to the right to alimony and paternal right’

 

Pointing out that some groups associated with the government have recently launched a campaign in the virtual media for the inclusion of alimony regulation in the 5th Judicial Reform Package, Berrin used the following statements: ‘’We are concerned that if there is a new regulation attempt on alimony, they may enter the Civil Code this time. For example, limiting poverty alimony is something that restricts a woman’s right to divorce. At the same time, these groups oppose child support. The child support (alimony paid by one of the divorced spouses to the other who has custody of child to meet the financial needs of their children). These alimony do not meet all the needs of the child, but they are common. A parent contributes to the parent who has custody of child. They also oppose it. This means that there is an objection to the right of custody of women. The place of objection to the right of custody is also the Civil Code.’’

 

‘We need to ambrace to the Civil Law’

 

Drawing attention to the objections to the current state of the Civil Code and the attempts to legitimize child abuse, Berrin said: ‘’There are attempts to legitimize child abuse under the name of early marriage. They do this with names innocented such as ‘’amnesty to young married people’’. The occurrence of such an amnesty is an issue that we have been vigilant about for years. If such a thing happens, the provision in the Civil Code stating that the age of marriage is 18 will be eroded or will be changed. That is why we need to carefully embrace to the Civil Law. We do not want them to try to change any of the women’s gains with legislation. We want to say that ‘do not touch the laws, enforce the laws’. We do not want any interference to the laws. There is no doubt that if an arrangement is made with this point of view in an atmosphere where misogyny has increased so much, it will be to the detriment of women. For this reason, I can say that this slogan should be on the tongue of all women and that our eyes should be on the parliament.’’