Parliamentary committees and the legislative role of the committee on equal opportunities for men and women (KEFEK) in Turkish Parliament

In numerous parliaments around the globe, standing or portfolio parliamentary committees have been established for maintaining and monitoring the gender equality in legislative process. With the enactment of the Law No. 5840 in Turkey, the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Men and Women ("KEFEK") was formed in 2009 as a standing committee. The present thesis aims at examining the role of KEFEK in the legislative process considering the literature as regards the parliamentary committees. At the same time, the thesis analyzes KEFEK's effectiveness and critically assesses its influence over the legislative activities to provide suggestions. In order to determine the place of KEFEK among the legislative committees, at first, the literature in relation to the parliamentary committees is reviewed. Second, an activity assessment of KEFEK is provided as regards its duties and activities as a primary or secondary committee. Third, the auditing duty and other duties of KEFEK are reviewed. Finally, its position in terms of the selected draft laws is discussed. The position of KEFEK is analyzed from the perspectives of "strength-weakness", "expertise-mediocrity" and "partisanship-objectivity" by choosing the draft laws which have a major impact on the gender equality. Keywords: Parliamentary Committee, Committee on Equality of Opportunity for Women and Men on Turkish Parliament, KEFEK, gender equality, equality of woman and man.