New constutition to fix women’s rights

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Cemil Çiçek participated in a meeting of the Women’s Constitution Platform. AA photo

Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek said the quality of a country’s democracy was determined by the rights it gives to women, and the new constitution would fix the deficiency of women’s rights in Turkey.

“Legal arrangements on women’s rights in the constitution and the legislation are the most important indicator of a country’s democracy quality. I hope we will overcome the constitutional deficiencies on women’s rights [with the new constitution],” Çiçek said at a meeting of the Women’s Constitution Platform.

Women’s organizations expressed their opinions on the new charter at a meeting of the Constitution Platform made up of nongovernmental organizations and trade unions. The meeting is part of Turkey’s Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) initiative “Turkey Speaks.”

All representatives of the NGOs and trade unions who spoke at the opening of the meeting were male, except Turkish Notaries Union representative Handan Baykam.

Indicating the majority of the speakers were male, Çiçek said: “We again have witnessed irregularity of Turkey and the world. Men have spoken much more.”

He said they intentionally organized the meeting on International Women’s Day. “You should express your view about the new constitution clearly. We are making efforts to form a constitution with conciliation to overcome the problems that originate from the current Constitution,” Çiçek said.

He said constitutional assurance of women’s rights was not enough to secure gender equality and said: “The other important part is mental transformation of society. Such a transformation can be possible with a mental education starting in school and continuing in society.”