The Istanbul Convention: An interview with Eren Keskin
Early on Saturday 20th March 2021, Turkey’s President Erdoğan issued a decree pulling Turkey out of the Istanbul Convention (official known as the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence). Adopted in 2011, the Istanbul Convention establishes the protection, prevention, prosecution and ultimately the elimination of all forms of violence against women, including domestic violence and specific measures for the protection of migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women.
While feminicide has increased in Turkey during the Covid-19 pandemic, Turkey’s threat to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention was always looming in the background. Since the announcement protests have ensued by women’s rights groups and LGBTQI+ activists across the country to raise awareness of Turkey’s high femicide rate and support the Istanbul Convention. Opponents however, blamed the document for threatening traditional family structures and challenging heteronormative understanding of gender identities.
Against this background, we interviewed Eren Keskin, lawyer and Co-Chair of the Human Rights Association, on the issue of violence against women and transgender people in Turkey through the perspective of the legal system, the problems in the implementation of the Istanbul Convention for the past 10 years, and what its withdrawal means for women and transgender people in Turkey.