EUROPEAN WOMEN’S LONNY
[Istanbul, 19 November 2016, NGOs Press release shared by the EWL National Coordination in Turkey]
We will accept no bills that would legitimize rap of women and children
The AKP’s bill on marrying off the children with their rapists and sexual harassers should immediately be withdrawn!
A last-minute bill was proposed on Thursday night, 17 November 2016 to the General Assembly of GNAT (Grand National Assembly of Turkey) by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) ?stanbul Deputy Mehmet Mu?, ?stanbul Deputy Halis Dalk?l?ç, Kocaeli Deputy ?lyas ?eker, K?r?kkale Deputy Ramazan Can, Hatay Deputy Hac? Bayram Türko?lu and Osmaniye Deputy Mücahit Durmu?o?lu. The bill suggests that for the crimes of sexual harassment perpetrated prior to 16 November 2016 if the perpetrator marries the victim, the sentence will be suspended and dropped following the limitation period.
In addition to this bill, the ruling party currently discusses whether to lower the age of consent to 12 by means of making amendments to the Article No.103 of the Turkish Criminal Code (TCC) despite all the objections of women’s organizations. If the Article No.103 passes into law as suggested above, majority of the perpetrators who are currently being and will be trialed as convicts of sexual abuse will have the right to assert that “the child gave consent” and thus their punishments will be abolished. Both retrospective and prospective regulations are in place with the amendments to the Article No.103 of the TCC as well as the bill proposed on the night of 17 November.
- With the amendment to the Article No.103, the age of consent will be lowered to 12 from 15 and the perpetrators of on-going criminal suits and those who will be convicted of sexual harassment in the future could get away with the crime. In enacting the bill, it is aimed that past sexual crimes be absolved and that the child sexual harassers be released.
- The bill proposed on the night of 17 November paves the way to retrospective remission of punishment for the sexual harassers.
- The “legal ground” is being laid down that will result in sexual violence against girls aged 12 and above and in marrying off them with their sexual harassers.
The amnesty bill proposed has been approved with the votes of AKP along with the amendment to the Article No.103 that will result in lowering of the legal age of consent to 12 are against the rights of the child and woman as well as the international obligations and therefore cannot be accepted under any circumstances. Threats and violence against the vested rights of women and girls continuously increase in Turkey. Among the most dangerous of all the threats are the amendment to the Article No.103 of TCC and the bill approved unanimously by AKP deputies, which might be passed into law at any moment. Approval of this amendment and the bill means that the article stating “releasing the perpetrator in cases where the perpetrator marries the victim” which was amended with the campaigns of the women’s organizations during the TCC Reform in 2004 when the TCC Woman Platform demanded that the foregoing article be changed, will be restored. And this, beyond any doubt, suggests retrogression in the vested legal rights of the women and girls!
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