Turkey: Panlýurfa declaration on violence against women

Honor killings are forms of extra judicial executions. Turkey co-sponsored a resolution titled ‘Working Towards Elimination of Crimes Committed in the Name of Honor’ at the 57th Session of the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee. State should start implementing the resolution immediately in good faith. We call upon the State, and specifically Committee on the Preparation of the New Penal Code to make the amendments that crimes committed in the name of honor are violations of women’s human rights and a form of extra judicial execution, cannot be mitigated as a ‘unjust provocation’. In addition, we ask the State to continue to co-sponsor this resolution at the 59th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in the fall of 2004.

The inadequate number of women’s shelters in Turkey, currently 14, further perpetuates the problem of violence against women. For instance, although crimes committed in the name of honor widely exist in the southeastern and eastern regions of the country, there is NOT even one shelter in these regions. Thus, we call upon State to establish shelters throughout the whole country, and provide free legal, medical, and psychological aiding services to the all kinds of victims of violence against women as well as appropriate assistance to enable women to find a means of subsistence. The sustainability of these shelters can only be maintained with long term planning and financial support of local, regional, and central government participation.