Achievements of UN Joint Programme on “Fostering an Enabling Environment for Gender Equality in Turkey” recognized at the Turkish Grand National Assembly
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The closure event of the UN Joint Programme on Fostering an Enabling Environment for Gender Equality in Turkey, conducted with cooperation of the Committee on Equal Opportunity for Women and Men (KEFEK), UN Women and UNDP, took place on 4 June at the Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara.
UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Kamal Malhotra, UN Women Programme Division Director Gülden Türköz-Cosslett, Speaker of Turkish Grand National Assembly Cemil Çiçek, Minister of Development Cevdet Yılmaz, Deputy Minister of Interior Osman Güneş, Deputy Minister of Family and Social Policies Aşkın Asan, KEFEK Chairperson Azize Sibel Gönül attended and spoke at the event.
UN Women Programme Director Gülden Türköz-Cosslett noted that effective implementation of laws to achieve gender equality is critical, as laws alone do not guarantee gender equality. She encouraged the Turkish Government and national partners to collectively focus on the implementation of these laws, especially in the context of the upcoming Beijing+20 review.
The Joint Programme was designed to ensure that gender equality is mainstreamed in legislation processes and policymaking, and translated into full-fledged implementation for achieving this change. UN Women’s activities carried out under the Joint Programme with KEFEK and Turkish Parliament resulted in the revision of 31 fundamental Turkish legislations from a gender perspective vis-à-vis their compliance with international standards for gender equality. The Programme also facilitated the “Gender Sensitive Parliaments Needs Assessment Exercise”, by IPU’s unique “Gender Sensitive Parliament” method, through which Turkish Parliament became the fifth parliament in the world to practise this method.