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Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Allyssa Myers

First Page

704

Abstract

Domestic violence against women is one of the most pervasive and pressing international issues of our time. There have been multiple international human rights treaties enacted to address this issue and move to end gender-based violence—the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combatting Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) being one. Created in 2011, the Istanbul Convention sought to provide an international legal framework for how states should work toward eradicating gender-based violence. Turkey, the first country to sign and to subsequently ratify the Istanbul Convention, unprecedently withdrew from the Convention in 2021. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated publicly that the country of Turkey was against the Convention because it normalized homosexuality and was damaging to Turkish family values. However, as this Note will explain, President Erdoğan’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention was in clear violation of the Turkish Constitution. This Note will explore the unconstitutionality of that withdrawal, first by setting up the historical backdrop against which President Erdoğan decided to withdraw, including spans of economic downturn in Turkey and more socially conservative values being promoted by the government. This Note will then explain how not only did the president’s withdrawal from the Convention violate Turkey’s constitution, but it also prompted Turkey to be in noncompliance with other international human rights treaties to which it is a signatory. This Note concludes by proposing multiple avenues on which Turkey and the rest of the world can unite to rebuild a better protective framework in Turkey for women and girls against domestic violence, including strengthened political efforts, enhanced education on gender-based violence, and an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

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