Istanbul Convention

2020 was expected to be the feminist super year - the anniversaries of the UN Resolution on "Women, Peace, and Security" and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action were supposed to be celebrated, and discussions about the lack of their implementation to be held. Instead, this became the year that, according to UN Women, would destroy 25 years of feminist achievements.

In the middle of the night on March 20, 2021, a presidential decree was published in the Official Gazette, announcing Turkey would withdraw from the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, also known as the Istanbul Convention.

The Human Rights Action Plan revealed by Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan makes bold claims of progress in human rights, freedom of expression, freedom the press and judicial independence. Here an analysis of what the action plan promise us

The EU’s positive agenda in its Turkey policy is based on wrong assumptions where Europe’s strategic interests lie.

Cânân Arın from Istanbul, Turkey, is the tenth recipient of the Anne Klein Women's Award, which honours women who courageously and persistently stand up for human rights, equal rights and sexual self-determination. The lawyer will receive the award in 2021 for her tireless commitment to non-violence, equality and legal security for women and girls. For over 40 years, she has campaigned for women's rights and self-determination. In 1990, Arın was one of the founders of the Mor Çatı (Purple Roof) association and of the first independent women's shelter in Turkey, which was founded in 1995.

“The hell of women is in full swing” is one of the most pertinent comments on the decision of the government-controlled Polish Constitutional Court to further restrict the anyway very limited public access of women to abortions in Poland. Although the measure had been part of the public discourse for years, the timing for its implementation comes partly as a surprise. What does this tell us about the further prospects for the rule of the Law and Justice party?

We need a feminist Peace- and Security policy! – A discussion with Gitti Henschel and Monika Hauser, as part of our dossier "No Women - No Peace: 20th Anniversary of UNSC Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security".

The pandemic demonstrated once more the persistence of gender inequality in our society. The disease outbreak and lockdown affected the situation of women around the globe. In Russia, the issue of women’s rights is acute as well.

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed and further exacerbated many inequalities - especially the ones concerning woman. 

The Covid-19 pandemic exposes the care crisis and underlying class and regional inequalities — which the new strategy does not equip us to handle.