Lately, it has become the norm in Turkey to wake up to yet another tragedy. On the news, what you constantly see—alongside the persistently high inflation—is a woman being murdered, most often, though not always, by a man. The rise in femicides has unsurprisingly coincided with democratic backsliding, as the ruling Erdoğan regime implements conservative policies to appease its Islamist-nationalist base at the expense of the well-being of women and LGBTQ+ individuals. In its 2024 report, the We Will Stop Femicides platform documented 394 femicides and 259 suspicious deaths of women in Turkey, mostly at the hands of their partners. Instead of protecting women, the Erdoğan regime, much like populist governments in Central Europe, has found the perfect scapegoat: the Istanbul Convention.
The Istanbul Convention is a Council of Europe treaty signed in 2011. It provides a comprehensive legal framework and remains one of the most effective mechanisms for combating violence against women. The Convention’s goals are clear: preventing violence, protecting women, and prosecuting aggressors. To prevent gender-based violence, it requires signatories to collaborate closely with civil society and the media to conduct awareness-raising campaigns while also emphasizing the need for training professionals who interact with victims. To protect victims, the Istanbul Convention empowers the police to remove domestic violence perpetrators from their homes and establishes easily accessible shelters. The most notable aspect, however, is the legal framework it offers. Prior to its adoption, certain acts—such as domestic violence and psychological abuse—were often overlooked and went unpunished. The Istanbul Convention not only criminalizes these previously neglected offenses but also encourages signatory states to implement legal reforms and provide new protections.
The Istanbul Convention is straightforward in its aim: saving lives. However, some leaders continue to challenge it. Turkey, the first country to sign the treaty, withdrew from it in 2021. The Directorate of Communications claimed that the Convention had been “hijacked by a group of people attempting to normalize homosexuality.” The previous Polish government, under the Law and Justice Party, took a similar stance, advocating for withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention on the grounds that it promotes “the LGBTQ+ agenda” by defining gender as socially constructed and rejecting a strict biological distinction. Beyond Turkey and Poland, multiple EU member states have signed the Convention but have yet to ratify it: Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia. These countries share concerns that the Convention’s language may contradict conservative values, national institutions, and the concept of the traditional family. In Bulgaria, for example, the Constitutional Court ruled in 2018 that the Convention’s definition of gender as a “social construct” was incompatible with the country’s legal framework. Similarly, Hungary’s Orbán has argued that the Convention promotes “gender ideology,” a term frequently used by far-right populists worldwide.
Preventing violence starts with us, but governments must also do their part in combating gender-based violence. The Istanbul Convention doesn’t target families—it protects them. Yet, as femicides rise and authorities turn a blind eye, millions of women flood the streets of Istanbul every November 25. The faces may change, but one slogan remains the same: Istanbul Convention Saves Lives.
Bibliography
https://www.coe.int/en/web/istanbul-convention