Access to Justice for Women in the Kurdish Regions

To all our supporters,

First of all we’d like to say a big thank you to all those of you who have made a contribution in support of this project and its journey towards attaining justice for women in the Kurdish region. We are pleased to announce that the project is also now up and running on the Global Giving US site, and has already generated some donations there.

Since our last report in June KHRP has been very busy working towards improving the situation for women in the Kurdish regions and investigating what kind of abuses are occurring and how to prevent them. In July, Turkey's report to the UN on the situation of women's rights was examined by the CEDAW Committee (Convention to Eliminate all forms of Discrimination Against Women), and this gave an opportunity for us to submit a 'shadow' report on this issue to be considered along side the state report.

As cases of violence against women and gender inequalities in education keep appearing, it is all the more important highlight these issues and provide tools and support for women and the groups that serve them. Young Kurdish girls, already afforded fewer educational opportunities, enter school with no knowledge of the Turkish language and no additional help, resulting in them dropping out of the education system early and therefore lacking confidence in how to deal with real life issues such as health care or future employment.

Violence against women continues to be pervasive, and it is important to highlight the incidences of abuse where they occur and encourage free speech on these issues to enable women to seek justice in the knowledge that they will be listened to. A recent report of a case involved the confiscation of a Kurdish newspaper was ordered after it reported a woman’s claims that she had been raped by four plain-clothed Diyarbakir police officers. The woman alleged that she had been raped due to her activities with the Democratic Free Women’s Movement (DOKH) and similar reports of the rape of four other women by police officers that same week were consequently either denied or swept under the carpet. KHRP and other organizations have repeatedly asked for Turkey to investigate all allegations of violence, punish perpetrators and protect women against such treatment and will continue to do so until claims like these are taken seriously.

The project will address these issues in a roundtable meeting with women's organizations towards the end of the year, and hope to bring you news of that in our next report. In the meantime, keep spreading the word and supporting the right of all women in the Kurdish regions to seek justice and be heard.

Thank you

Anna Irvin – Project manager