Women for Women’s Human Rights

Twenty years have passed since the Convention on the Elimination of All Kinds of Discrimination Against Women was signed. Since then, many states have not completely fulfilled their commitments as delineated by the Convention. In light of this reality and basing its claims on various International Human Rights Conventions and other documents, the United Nations General Assembly ratified and opened up for signatures among member states a supplementary Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Kinds of Discrimination Against Women in October 1999. With this supplementary document, women who are of the view that their rights are being violated and have not been able to find justice within their own judicial system will be able to directly appeal to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. ). The process of the European Court of Human Rights may be considered as a similar example.

This Protocol enables individuals or groups of individuals of states that are party to the Convention, who claim that their legal rights as delineated in the Convention have been violated, to make a legal application to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. The Committee will accept applications made in line with the Convention and only if all available national legal means have been exhausted, or if these means will either take too long a time period to reach conclusion, or are unlikely to bring relief.

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Kinds of Discrimination Against Women was ratified by the United Nations and came into force on 22 December 2000. However, in each country for the Protocol to be valid and available to use by women, there are some requirements that need to be fulfilled:

To be signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Kinds of Discrimination Against Women, (Turkey is a signatory)
To have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Kinds of Discrimination Against Women, (Turkey has ratified it)
To be signatory to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Kinds of Discrimination Against Women, (Turkey is a signatory)
To have ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Kinds of Discrimination Against Women. (Turkey has ratified it in July 2002)

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Kinds of Discrimination Against Women was opened up for signatures on 10 December 1999, International Human Rights Day. Less than a year later, it had been signed by more than 60 and ratified by more than 10 countries, and thus came into force. As of September 2002, 75 countries had signed, and 45 countries had ratified the Optional Protocol.

Many non-governmental organizations working on women's issues lobbied the Turkish government, calling on the government to sign the Protocol. These efforts drew the attention of the media, and also led to several campaigns focused on specific authorities within the government. Finally, the Protocol, signed by the Turkish government on 8 September 2000, was ratified by the Parliament on July 30, 2002.