Excellencies,

Distinguished colleagues,
It is a pleasure for me to join you all to mark the first-year anniversary of the Group of Friends for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls.

I also thank Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, Asa Regner and panelists for their insightful remarks. The voice of civil society is crucial on this matter.

Furthermore, I would also like to extend our appreciation to the EU Delegation for coordinating our efforts in the creation of the Group of Friends which has now 93 members from all regions of the world. Türkiye is a proud member of the Steering Committee of this Group.

Excellencies,

Violence against women is one of the most widespread, persistent, and devastating human rights violations in our world today.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 has exacerbated the risk factors and root causes contributing to violence and inequality.

As a country that considers eliminating violence against women a priority matter, Türkiye has established a solid legislative framework and carries out extensive practical protective work.

We have successfully implemented the measures to preserve employment through social protection. During the pandemic, large income losses have been prevented with practices such as short-time working allowance, restriction on the termination of labour contracts, cash wage and normalization support.

We have in place a comprehensive Women’s Empowerment Strategy Document and Action Plan with 5 main policy axes namely; participation in decision-making mechanisms, economy, education, health and media.

Economic empowerment is a vital component in reaching women’s full empowerment.

In this regard, Türkiye has made steady progress through comprehensive measures and projects. “Women's Employment National Monitoring and Coordination Board” has been established to define policies and measures towards this end.

I am pleased to say that more than half of the beneficiaries of both active labour and vocational education programs are women.

Last year, in cooperation with UN Women, we have launched the "Gender-Responsive Planning and Budgeting” project in Türkiye. The project aims to empower women in Türkiye by systematic and sustainable integration of gender perspective at all stages of national and local policy making and budgeting processes.

While there are still challenges ahead to eradicate this problem, we are very much resolved to strengthen our efforts and actively take part in all initiatives towards this end.

This is clearly a global matter and we need to work altogether to turn our commitments into concrete action.

Thank you.