Europarlementariërs willen dat Turkijke maatregelen neemt tegen eerwraak (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Parliament's women's rights committee has urged Turkey to boost efforts to tackle violence against women and honour killings.

Dutch socialist MEP Emine Bozkurt i presented a report on gender equality and women's rights in Turkey on Thursday (23 November) saying that the EU candidate country has made some progress in the area - but mainly by introducing new laws.

She suggested however that "in practise, there needs to be a political will to implement these laws and protect women from violence. There is a need to change the mentality of people in order to fully implement the existing laws."

The Dutch deputy also pointed out that over the past year there were attempts in Turkey to overturn the women's rights set out in the national laws as part of the integration process to the EU.

"The efforts to revise legislation on prosecuting violence against women were only dropped after the incident where a Turkish deputy used violence against his wife," Ms Bozkurt noted, insisting that to prevent such attempts "the practical implementation" plus "endurance" of the women's rights legislation should remain a priority.

For her part, Turkey's minister for women's affairs Nimet Cubukcu acknowledged the problem of violence against women but also listed a number of steps her government has taken to fight against the phenomenon.

She said that Turkish women get financial aid to cover their legal expenses if taking the perpetrators to courts, while "honour killings" are now being punished with life imprisonment under the revised penal law.

Only eight cases of such crime have been punished under the stricter terms so far however, with the Ms Bozkurt calling for more objective data on how many incidents have happened across the country.

In its November report on Turkey, the European Commission noted that "crimes in the name of honour and suicides committed by women due to the influence of the family still occur, especially in the regions of the East and Southeast."

Ms Cubukcu argued that the government-led campaign has brought along some positive results, adding that the efforts to raise the awareness of the issue include trainings for men, particularly young soldiers coming to serve in Turkey's army.

Another aspect of Ankara's gender equality dossier is its shortcomings in the area of female education.

According to UNICEF figures mentioned in the parliament's report, between 600,000 and 800,000 Turkish girls per year are either prevented by their families to go to school or can not attend the classes as they live in rural areas too far from school.

Defending her government, Ms Cubukcu said that the latest campaign and special measures to enforce the eight-year-long obligatory education has led to a boost by 22 percent in the number of girls going to school, with the government hoping to achieve their 100 percent attendance by 2010.

The situation of women and gender equality is one of the key issues stressed by the EU as a challenge for Turkey on its path to become a member state of the bloc, with Brussels urging Turkish officials to make use of EU funds available for projects dealing with the problem.