Turkey has fallen to the 101st position out of 113 countries in the World Justice Project’s 2017-18 Rule of Law Index. There has been widespread concern that fundamental rights and freedoms and the rule of law in Turkey have eroded since state of emergency was announced in July 2016. Turkey was ranked in the bottom tercile in six of these eight areas.

      Yet the government policies and practices far exceeded its declared aims or objectives and created hundreds of thousands of victims.   17,000 of them are women that have nothing to do with the putsch.

       The motivation behind this unprecedented crackdown on women is to create a chill factor in Turkish society and intimidate people from exercising their rights including freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and other liberties. The logic follows that if the regime goes to this extreme in jailing women who, in some cases, have just delivered babies or are pregnant, and subjecting them to torture and ill-treatment in detention centers and prisons, the prevailing perception will be that nobody is safe from the wrath of Erdoğan and the government.

          The victimization of women persists in Turkey under the witch-hunt carried out by political leaders who demonize and vilify their critics in a wholesale approach by constantly calling social groups like the Gülen movement traitors and agents of foreign powers. Therefore, many women feel stigmatized, isolated in their own neighborhoods, even if they are released from jail. In some cases, they were declared a pariah among their own immediate and extended family members who are afraid of the government.

           Turkey has violated a number of international conventions, especially with respect to the rights of female detainees and their children. The abuse of women and children ranges from sexual abuse to physical torture and ill treatment. Pregnant, elderly and sick women or women with babies were denied effective access to health care, their visitation rights were ignored and they were threated with the persecution of other family members including their children. This inhumane treatment leaves a mark on many women and children that in some cases may have a permanent effect on their wellbeing and health.

         President Erdogan’s government must not be allowed to continue this destruction of human rights. Sign the petition to demand that President Erdoğan take the following steps to end human rights abuses in the name of ‘national security’ in Turkey:
1.     Repeal abusive laws that go beyond legitimate measures to combat threats to national security

2.     Release women, and their children jailed on baseless charges.

3.     Let the international organizations as well as intergovernmental organizations observe, identify, investigate and report these massive human rights violations in Turkey and hold those who act with impunity to account.

References:

https://turkeypurge.com/?s=women+in+jails

https://silencedturkey.org/children-and-their-mothers-are-prisoners-of-conscience-in-turkey

https://www.huddledm.org/