Amnesty presses Turkey to protect women’s right to protest, urges return to Istanbul Convention

20.11.2025

By SCF

Source:https://stockholmcf.org/amnesty-presses-turkey-to-protect-womens-right-to-protest-urges-return-to-istanbul-convention/

Amnesty International has called on Turkish authorities to protect women’s right to peaceful assembly ahead of nationwide demonstrations planned for November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Recalling that prosecutors brought charges against 168 people detained during last year’s November 25 protests, Amnesty urged Turkish officials to take all necessary steps to guarantee the right to peaceful assembly and to drop investigations and prosecutions targeting women and LGBTI+ individuals solely for exercising this right.

Prosecutors are seeking up to three years in prison for 161 of those indicted, for violating the law on meetings and demonstrations, while seven are also charged with resisting the police, facing up to six years.

In a letter to the İstanbul Governor’s Office, Amnesty said Turkish authorities “must protect peaceful protesters and take concrete steps to end gender-based violence.” The organization also called on Turkey to rejoin the Istanbul Convention, from which it withdrew in 2021.

Women’s rights and human rights groups are planning marches and demonstrations across Turkey on November 25 and are calling for broad participation.

The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, is an international accord designed to protect women’s rights and prevent domestic violence in societies and was opened to the signature of Council of Europe member states in 2011. Turkey had been a party to the convention until 2021.

In a move that attracted national and international outrage, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in March 2021 used a presidential decree to withdraw the country from the convention, which requires governments to adopt legislation prosecuting perpetrators of domestic violence and similar abuse as well as marital rape and female genital mutilation.

Since the withdrawal, Erdoğan’s political allies have called for further rollbacks, urging the repeal of a domestic law that stipulates protection mechanisms for women who either have suffered or are at risk of suffering violence. Rights advocates warn that these moves signal a systematic dismantling of legal safeguards and a deepening hostility toward women’s rights activism.