Ms. Bachelet and President of Turkey Discuss Region’s Role in Achieving Gender Equality
Date:
Istanbul—During the Fourth UN Conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), UN Women Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director Ms. Michelle Bachelet met with H.E. President of Turkey Abdullah Gul. Ms. Bachelet congratulated the President on his commitment to support efforts to eradicate extreme poverty in LDCs, recognized Turkey's positive political and economic role in the region and expressed appreciation for Turkey's role as an emerging donor.
In particular, Ms Bachelet noted progress made by Turkey in adopting measures, including legislative ones, to address, for instance, violence against women. She also congratulated Turkey for organizing a signing ceremony of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence on 11 May in Istanbul, which will make Turkey one of the first signatories of the Convention.
H.E. President Gul expressed his support to UN Women and UN efforts towards gender equality and offered the possibility of providing support to establish a regional UN Women presence in Istanbul. He further highlighted the achievements Turkey has made in areas, such as girls' primary education, but acknowledged more needs to be done and expressed his hopes for increasing women's political participation in future parliamentary elections.