The Book of Femicide Is Preventable Campaing has been Published

The book of Femicide Is Preventable Campaing which is composed of Femicide Action Research, Conference on Urgent Action to Stop Femicide, Guide to Reporting on Femicide and Femcide Urgent Action Plan has been published.


The study of Femicide Action Research had been concluded in 2015. The fieldwork for this study was conducted in Ankara, İzmir, Adana, Trabzon, Van, Diyarbakır and Istanbul. The Conference on Urgent Action to Stop Femicide had been held at Istanbul Technical University’s Maçka Campus Social Facilities on November 27th and 28th. At this conference, where participants had shared the results of research conducted on femicide during 2009-2013, as well as experiences in the struggle to stop femicide. An Urgent Plan of Action to Stop Femicide had been drawn up. Femicide Is Preventable Campaign which was supported by European Union and Heinrich Böll Stiftung had been drawn up by the Filmmor Women’s Cooperative in cooperation with the Van Women’s Associations, Ceren Women’s Associaton, Izmir Independent Women’s Initiative, Izmir Women’s Solidarity Association, Women’s Solidarity Foundation, KAMER Foundation, Black Sean Women’s Solidarity Foundation and Federation of Women’s Societies of Turkey. The study also had showed that the murderers of women sometimes get advice from the very law-enforces who arrest them, in order to get lower sentences; that they sometimes get inspiration from the media which reports on these murders in such a way as to validate them ; and that they more often execute the women according to intricate design rather than due to an outburst of rage. These findings therefore also had revealed a need for Guide to Reporting on Femicide. This guide, prepared by the Media Working Group, which included the participation of female journalists had been introduced and disseminated.

The book of Femicide is Preventable Campaign which is composed of the findings of research, plan of action, media guide and the content of the campaign  has been published. Now, it’s your turn, it’s everyone’s turn, all together…

If all individuals, institutions and agencies do their job, femicide can be prevented.

From The Book of Femicide Is Preventable:

The main causes of femicide are sexism and the denial of gender equality. Femicides are ideological, organized, systematicand political murders with the direct or indirect approval of many organizations and people. Women are being murdered by men, who assume and claim that they have absolute power over women, because women resist that pressure and reject male domination!

“Excuse” of Femicides: Separation and Rejection!
Half of all murderers use excuse such as divorce, separation, rejection or jealousy. This means that they assume women have no right to divorce, separate, reject and exercise their free will. This is not recognized! And not just “in the family”: it is the same outside of the family, in the legal system, in the court, everywhere…

 

Between the years 2009 and 2013, 56% cases of femicide, the killers used excuses of “separation, rejection and jealousy”.

 

The murderers are in our households!
95% of the murdered women—almost all of them—were killed by their husbands, fiancés, boyfriends, ex-husbands, ex-fiancés, ex-boyfriends, fathers, sons, and other male relatives. One of two murderers is the husband of the woman he kills!

Between the years 2009-2013, 75% of 949 murdered women were killed by a husband, partner, ex-husband, or ex- partner!

Femicides have clear warning signs!
In Turkey, one of every five murdered women is killed in the public domain. Women fight their own though abuse: it starts with one slap on the face and ends in a murder. Although they ask for help from their environment, from law enforcement agencies, and contact the prosecutors’ office, they are murdered in front of our eyes. Femicides which are obviously coming closer could be avoided with political will, effective sanctions, and by women’s empowerment and solidarity.

 

Between the years 2009-2013, 29% of 949 women were murdered in the public domain!

The media legitimates the femicides!
60% of the femicide news appears on media as a third-page news and also femicide news can be founded in the media under random crime news. Femicides are almost invisible regarding both the quantity and the content of incidents. The news is usually murder/event oriented. The news based on the court statements of the perpetrators. The news contains expressions and language that used in titles of femicides which banalize the murders and even legitimate them.

From Guide to Reporting on Femicides:

When a woman is murdered just because she is woman; this is not an ordinary judicial case, it is a ‘femicide’. Name it.  Do not give any space for dramatization and melodrama. Do not vindicate or cover up the perpetrator; do not try to explain the murder with the life of the perpetrator.

From Femicide Action Research:

The first condition for the prevention of femicide is the existence of political will to fight with determination against sexism. 

In the framework of this Action Plan, by creating required mechanisms and by applying enough resources, femicides can be avoided!

Implementing the Femicide Urgent Action Plan:

A Commision Femicide Prevention should be established consisting of women MPs. As the first step of equal participation and to ensure equal representation in all decision-makng, a Women and Gender Equality Ministry has to be established for the recognition and development of ‘’Women’s Speech and Decision Rights’’ at every level of politics and society.

Policy Recommendations:

·       Policy and practices to ensure equal participation and representation of women in all decision-making mechanisms and specific measures

·       Social policies that will ensure that nursing is not burden for women and specific measures to implement this

·       Through new policies and measures, all administrative units have to take the side of women on ‘’inter-family violence’’ instead of playing the role of ‘’peacemaker’’

·       Policies and specific measures for the development of the speaking and decision-making rights of women in all areas

Suggestions For Practice:

·       The regulation of the definitions and conditions of femicide and its possible sentence reductions

·       Total specialization of all institutions and processes which are related to femicides, specialized women’s officers in poliçe forces who work 24/7

·       Necessary sign with the content of ‘’warnings and appeal information for violence against women’’ should be put up in the offices of all public authorities, central and local government units and apartments

·       Gender-equality courses at every stage of formal education and in universities

·       Allowing children whose mothers were killed by their husband or ex-husband to take the mother’s last name, providing social security and income and giving scholarshios or compensation to the children of murdered women

·       Form mechanisms like monitoring groups to take the responsibility of preventing femicides and monitoring,involving and supervising the Femicide Prevention Action Plan