Turkey unveils new action plan for violence against women

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan unveiled a new action plan to enhance legal, administrative and political means in combatting violence against women on the day Turkey formally withdrew from the Istanbul Convention.

"Our fight against violence against women did not begin with this convention, and it will not end by withdrawing from this convention," Erdoğan said at an introductory meeting of the fourth National Action Plan for Combating Violence Against Women on July 1 in Ankara.

The action plan, which covers all the actions to be taken between 2021 and 2025, was announced as Turkey accomplished all the necessary procedures for its withdrawal from the Council of Europe's Istanbul Convention. Turkey said it pulled back from the convention on the ground that it was undermining family values.

Erdoğan denied the comments that Turkey's withdrawal would complicate the country's efforts against the violence against women, recalling that the first national action plan was announced in 2007 before the Istanbul Convention was even born.

Just like in the fight against the pandemic, we need to deal with violence against women sincerely and objectively, without making it material for political discussions," Erdoğan said.

"We will continue today and tomorrow our struggle against violence against women and for the women's use of human rights just as we did yesterday," he stated. Turkey is among the countries with broad and comprehensive legal and administrative infrastructure on this issue, he recalled.

The new action plan will further strengthen the government's efforts to end violence against women, Erdoğan said, informing that the four-year plan covers five top objectives and 28 strategies in a holistic way.

The first...