An evaluation on the reaction of civil society organisations to Türkiye's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention

The Istanbul Convention has caused many debates in the political arena and public opinion since its signature and the subsequent decision to withdraw from it. The present study focuses on the reactions of civil society organisations that supported and criticised the decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention. The main hypothesis of the study is that the Istanbul Convention is interpreted by these actors based on an ideological framework, far from an objective reality. Mixed qualitative research method was applied in the study. In this context, firstly, a literature review was conducted, then civil society organisations that supported and did not support the withdrawal decision were identified and the findings obtained through document analysis method were examined. Then, data on violence against women while the Convention was in force and since the decision to withdraw were analysed and it was tried to determine whether the withdrawal from the Convention had an impact on the phenomenon of violence and if so, in what direction. In the conclusion part of the present study, it has been determined that the Istanbul Convention was not sufficiently implemented even when it was in force, therefore written texts that were not implemented would be dysfunctional and that Law No. 6284 also had implementation problems after the decision to withdraw from the Convention. In addition, other conclusions were that the opinions of non-governmental organisations that are not experts in their field were taken into consideration and that the Convention was evaluated from an ideological perspective rather than on the basis of human rights.