Category: News on Sexual & Bodily Rights

by Cihan Huroglu, Lambdaistanbul LGBT Solidarity Association – Turkey

The Istanbul LGBT Pride Week 2010, which took place through June 18-27, generated a great dynamic in terms of its organizational capacity, and opened the floor to new discussions around its specific theme of ―the family. The week was concluded with its traditional pride march realized with an ever-growing number of participants.

Istanbul Pride has been organized every year since 1993; the pride march, however, has become visible on the streets only since 2003. Number of people who participated in the march this year was estimated to be around 3000-4000. Undoubtedly the most celebrated activity of the LGBT Pride, the march was also the culmination of Istanbul Pride following 10 days of events including a series of workshops, panels, exhibitions, film screenings and parties.

This year, the main theme of the Pride Week was inspired by the encouraging achievements of LISTAG; the family support group of Lambdaistanbul, and thus was declared as the concept and construct of ―the family. After the unfortunate statement of the Minister of State Responsible for Women and Family Selma Aliye Kavaf who declared ―homosexuality is a disease, the Pride organization team further mobilized its efforts around the LGBT protests against the minister.

The main motivation behind this year‘s conceptualization was primarily to go beyond the first step of the movement, namely the individual LGBT emancipation (meaning coming-out discussions, the declaration of identities and following discussions around identities, the queer alternative etc.) and to focus more on the social relations of non-heterosexual individuals, where one faces the family in the first instance. The question of alternative family models and the economic and social role of the family were discussed from a queer perspective. There, the focus has been placed not only on the families of LGBT individuals, but also on LGBT as family members to deconstruct the traditional perception of ―queers as a threat to the family. This motive was reflected during the week in the form of a workshop on ―being a father; informative speeches on partnership regulations around the world; and critical discussions on hetero-normative family models and transgender fertility.

In addition, the week also addressed the issues of the current LGBT movement campaigns and agenda as well, such as hate crimes, conceptualization of gender, sexuality and morality, police pressure and the politicians‘ ignorance and disregard of LGBT issues, as portrayed in the statement by Minister Kavaf. One of the most inspiring achievements of the Pride Week was the broad participation in the organization of events. A lot of LGBT individuals contributed to the week in a variety of ways; for many, this experience was their first contact with the movement and an LGBT community. The  participatory method not only broadened the activities‘ sphere of influence,but also improved the quality of the critical perspective in the discussions during the conceptualization of the entire project. A separate women‘s initiative with a separate agenda was established under the organizational committee as well.

Guests such as Stefan Liebich, an MP from the Leftist Party of Germany, and various representatives from LGBT organizations in Germany, Lebanon, Portugal, Greece, England, Spain and USA all enriched the program. Discussions on the rising Homo-nationalism specifically in Germany, as well as the conditions of migrant LGBTs in Turkey indicated the great diversity of issues on the LGBT agenda and interconnectedness of the social problems. A special session was also held on Queer solidarity against the apartheid in Israel.

Art exhibitions and discussions on queer art, workshops on sexuality and body led by Female to Male transgenders, inspired new initiatives. The Genetically Modified Tomato Awards Ceremony that ―awards the most homophobic persons and institutions of the year also caught much attention and became one of the most visited events of the week. Needless to say, the Genetically Modified Tomato Award for the ―life long homophobic performance has gone to the Minister of State, Selma Aliye Kavaf.

The week also included many social events such as parties, cocktails, and film screenings followed by discussion sessions. In the panel of family support groups, activists exchanged their experiences and encouraged the LISTAG initiative to extend its work beyond Istanbul to other Anatolian cities, where the LGBT movement has recently been developing and gaining strength.

Istanbul Pride this year, as in previous years, served as a major driving force for LGBT activists from various cities to connect with activists in Istanbul and elsewhere, and create the spirit of LGBT solidarity which materialized in the pride march around the rainbow flag on Sunday June the 27th bringing thousands of activists and supporters together. The international participation was visible during the demonstration with banners that read ‘queers against Israeli apartheid’ and slogans in various languages including turkish, english, kurdish and armenian.
www.lambdaistanbul.org www.prideistanbul.org/

by Liz Ercevik Amado and Sehnaz Kiymaz, WWHR-New Ways – Turkey

In July 2010, the 6th Periodic Country Review of Turkey by the UN CEDAW (Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women) Committee was concluded with the review session at the UN Headquarters in New York. Women for Women‘s Human Rights (WWHR) – New Ways co-coordinated the CEDAW Turkey shadow reporting and advocacy process (2008-2010), which had significant impact on the review and the subsequent CEDAW Committee Concluding Comments, including on several important issues pertaining to sexual, reproductive and bodily rights. Having coordinated the women‘s movement‘s CEDAW advocacy efforts in previous reviews of Turkey in 1997 and 2005, WWHR-New Ways launched the preparations for this review process in 2008.

After a meeting bringing together two women‘s coalitions, namely the Women‘s Platform on the Turkish Penal Code and the CEDAW NGO Forum Executive Committee, a joint coalition consisting of 20 national NGOs was established for collective work around Turkey‘s 6th Periodic Review. Envisioned as a collaborative and participatory process, the report was drafted under seven headings by different working groups, with an introduction to provide an overview and underline crosscutting emerging concerns.(1)

The comprehensive shadow report was endorsed by six nationwide women‘s coalitions representing over 100 organizations. Women‘s NGOs framed their demands with the overarching perspective that ―The Government should approach eliminating all forms of gender-based discrimination as a matter of urgency and major priority with due political commitment. Rather than reinforcing traditional gender roles through embedding solutions in the traditional family structures, the Government should adopt policies to empower women in all private and public spheres.‖(2) Issues around sexual, bodily and reproductive health and rights were addressed in numerous sections of the shadow report as crucial demands. These included incorporating the ―Equality Before the Law‖ principle into the

Constitution and laws; annulling discriminatory statutes in the Turkish Penal Code on honor crimes, virginity testing, sexual orientation, and consensual sexual relations between minors; abolishing the discriminatory provision requiring women to wait 300 days to remarry after divorce and allowing women to use their birth last names after marriage. The report also included demands for the provision of sexual and reproductive health services, measures to address HIV/AIDS among women and girls, the establishment of sexual assault crisis centers, definition of hate crimes and measures to prevent killing of transsexual women.

During the review session, the report was highly commended by Committee members. In the official session with the Turkish government delegation, during which Committee members questioned the government on the periodic report and progress achieved, almost all the questions directed to the Turkey delegation reflected the points raised in the shadow report. The CEDAW Committee challenged the lack of actual progress, the conservative discourse and implementation problems rather directly and strongly. For instance, in the first question following the opening remarks by the Minister of Women and

Family, a Committee Member directly asked why the government was reluctant to enact an anti-discrimination law including discrimination based on sexual orientation. This was very significant considering the Minister’s unfortunate comment in March 2010 declaring “homosexuality is a disease”. Moreover given the fact that sexual orientation is not addressed directly in the CEDAW Convention itself, it is a progressive interpretation on the side of the Committee, reflecting willingness to address sexual rights in the framework of CEDAW.

The Committee also noted that the government must take measures to prevent the arbitrary application of Article 29 of the Turkish Penal Code that regulates ―unjust provocation,‖ for honor killings. The Committee also raised issues of ongoing discrimination against women in marriage and divorce; HIV/AIDS among women and girls; sexual violence and lack of comprehensive legislation against domestic violence.

In terms of sexual and reproductive health and rights, the Comments include a number of important and specific recommendations such as adopting ―comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation and clear prohibition of multiple forms of discrimination against women‖; amendments to the Penal Code to make ―women‘s consent a prerequisite for genital examination under all circumstances‖ and the ―explicit inclusion‖ of honor killings as aggravated homicide; taking ―comprehensive measures to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, including preventive measures‖ and ―designing and implementing long term strategies‖ to eliminate gender stereotypes, discriminatory attitudes and harmful traditional practices such as forced and early marriages.(3)

The women‘s NGOs‘ initial analysis is that the comments reflect our demands to a great extent and will serve as a useful tool to pressure the government to take effective measures against discrimination. Given the volatile political atmosphere and continuing threat of backlash in face of rising conservatism, it is of further importance for women‘s rights advocates in Turkey to make effective use of international instruments such as CEDAW to safeguard and advance women‘s human rights, including sexual, bodily and reproductive rights.

(1) The full text of the Shadow Report can be accessed at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/ngos/WPTPC_Turkey46.pdf
(2) Addendum to Turkey Shadow NGO Report: Brief for Concluding Comments
(3)Draft Concluding Comments for Turkey are available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/CEDAW-C-TUR-CO-6.pdf