The Istanbul Convention (Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence) pledges to prevent, prosecute and eliminate domestic violence and to provide help for survivors. Turkey's announcement of withdrawal early this morning is all over the news; here’s a reasonable summary from Reuters.
For anyone not familiar with the Convention and interested, this COE infographic outlines the policies and signatory countries’ responsibilities under the treaty.
Turkey was the first to sign and ratify the Convention, in 2012. They now say they already have national and local laws to protect women and don’t need to work within an international framework. But Turkey has massive and apparently growing issues with sex-based violence, and the idea that the Turkish government would do better outside the Convention’s framework isn’t convincing to many Turkish women and women’s groups.
As a side note - Poland’s PiS also announced over the summer that it was withdrawing which (like pretty much everything they do involving women’s rights) resulted in mass protests, but they haven’t actually left. Turkey’s withdrawal, although not a huge surprise, may accelerate rumblings in places prone to nativism.
(I should add that the UK have also signed, but not ratified, the Convention.)
Trending on Twitter worldwide: #turkeyisnotsafeforwomen and #istanbulsozlesmesiyasatir.