Turkish Gender Discrimination Cases in Domestic and International Courts

Abstract

Chapter 6 is a comparative inquiry into the international and domestic opportunity structure for gender discrimination court cases. The chapter asks, how generalizable are the barriers and opportunities to bringing sex-based discrimination cases to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) from Russia to other Council of Europe member states? The chapter examines social, interpersonal, and material barriers to bringing gender discrimination and LGBT discrimination cases in Turkey. It looks at types of gender discrimination, including domestic violence and honor killing, as well as violence against members of the LGBT community, such as hate crimes. The chapter includes an in-depth analysis of discrimination cases from Turkey regarding both women and LGBT citizens, and finds that, with a few illuminating exceptions, the barriers in Turkey are similar to those in Russia (these include reluctance to go to court, stereotypical attitudes toward sex-based and LGBT discrimination among law enforcement and in the courts, a lack of statistical data to prove patterns of discrimination, lengthy procedures and unsatisfying court decisions and/or implementation of decisions, and a lack of legal training on discrimination). In addition to discussing important gender discrimination and LGBT discrimination cases in domestic court in Turkey, the chapter covers ECtHR rulings on Turkish cases, as well as the impact of the Convention on Eliminating All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence.