374 woman victims of fatal domestic violence in Turkey’s Southeast in 6 years: report
A report drafted by the Diyarbakır branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD) has revealed that 374 women have been killed in incidents of domestic violence in Turkey’s eastern and southeastern regions over the past six years, the gazeteduvar news website reported on Friday.
The İHD prepared the report on the occasion of Nov. 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
According to the İHD report, the number of women murdered in these regions over the past year is 53.
The İHD’s Derya Yıldırım, who is responsible for the association’s commission on women, said violence against women has increased in Turkey since 2012 as documented in the reports of women’s foundations, noting that this shows the government has failed to take effective measures to prevent violence against women.
Yıldırım said 220 women have been injured while 50 others have been subjected to sexual attacks in the same regions over the past six years, adding that the picture of violence against women across Turkey is much worse.
Referring to the latest report of the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) released in October, Yıldırım said under-reporting, restrictions on NGOs, forced and under-aged marriage and victim blaming overshadow progress in efforts to end violence against women, according to GREVIO.
GREVIO’s report, whose key concerns range from underreporting of gender-based violence against women to widespread cases of underage and forced marriages and increasingly restrictive conditions placed on independent women’s organizations, urged Turkish authorities to take specific steps to properly implement the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the İstanbul Convention) by Turkey.