Women And Youth Empowerment In Turkey
If we were spectators in a play named ‘human society’, what would we expect? With your approval, a minor alteration. We are not in the audience, we are on the scene. Which is our involvement in the storyline? We are deeply in need of a key element in order to solidify the well fare of, without any doubt, all of the characters that take part. Turkey, applauds the growth of the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation and stands by the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) to contribute in one of its most vital priorities, the empowerment of women and youth. The integration, will be achieved, taking into consideration economic, social and political factors. His Excellency, the Secretary General Nasser Kamel, pointed out on the 10th anniversary of the UfM; ‘We have a solid base to capitalize on, as we further expand the spectrum of our activities (…) and consolidate our role as a platform of regional dialogue’.
Empowerment is a multi-level process and indeed, interacted steps between governments’ policies and international collaborations will be the appropriate formula. The Republic of Turkey since its establishment in 1923 and through new adaptations of the supreme law of the state, the constitution, successfully epitomise their promises, along with structure of the political system the legislature, executive and judiciary branch.
The constitution guarantees the fundamental rights, the equality before law without discrimination (art.10), equality of spouses (art.41), asserts the state’s duty on training and education of the people (art.42), the protection of youth (art.58). Furthermore, laws for social boost were introduced, such as the labour law in 2003, about equal treatment of employees and in 2012 the law about the protection of family and the prevention of violence against women. In 2011, the Ministry of Youth and sports was established. It is the central governmental authority for youth except from the formal education. It organises wide range of activities, centres and camps and due to its latest strategic plan from 2013-2017 carries out studies to help the youth develop mechanisms for their social participation.
As far as it concerns on political rights, women of Turkey demanded successfully universal suffrage in 1934. The representation of female lawmakers in Parliament reached its highest level in Turkey with the parliamentary elections in 2017 and an honourable mention that the youngest legislators are women. On the entrepreneurship sector, both youth and women of all ages can be helped through the Small and Medium Industry development Organisation (KOSGEB), a semi- governmental institution held in 1990 that informs and guide the new enterprises.
Moving along, on international level an essential component to succession is a legal framework, the Turkish constitution states the prevalence of international treaties against domestic laws of same issues (art.90). Turkey, as one of the founding members of UN, striving to contribute effectively ,has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1985.
Also, UN in an attempt to include protection and equality under the law, created the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) with turkish ratification in 2015. The advocacy went on, with Turkey being the first one state to ratify Council of Europe’s convention, the Istanbul Convention in 2012. Regardless of Turkey still being a candidate on membership in EU, the two parties have developed strong trade bonding and as a matter of fact the relation with the institution, radically changed with the humanitarian aid of above 3 million refugees, increasingly after 2015. The national policy, assist to empower the EU youth strategy 2010-2018 with providing a voice to the youth and will follow with the upcoming EU youth strategy 2019-2027.
Bearing in mind, the UfM’s act as a catalyst of up to 50 projects until 2018,the role of members States marks as indispensable, because beside the progression our region has and deserves innovators. Turkey would like to share with the other distinguished members some thoughtful recommendations.
Principally, culture through humans’ evolution has a crucial role to the configuration of societies’ perspectives. Nevertheless, dominance of stereotypes and the marginalisation of significant portions of the population are obvious. Global gender gap in labour participation percentages are low as far as the participation of women in decision-making. The UfM strong partnership with European Union can be expanded and inspired by EU programmes Erasmus + for youth education and other facilities, create programmes which address to families and their purpose stands through informal education activities, provide family’s stability and indeed the necessary understanding of equality of the sexes on family duties.
Another point to be mentioned, on the initiative of UfM ,Med4jobs for job creation for youth and women. Our proposition stands on the escalation of this project, as a state we are concerned that finance the first steps of a business is crucial. Turkey recommends the frame of a programme in which the new entrepreneur can set the criteria of the business demands and then could be easily matched with the appropriate investors, an aim as an addition to the Union’s partnership with CEED Global on CEED GROW.
Additionally, a beneficial contribution on the UfM’s partnership list, is UN women. The “WeLearn” project within the UN women is a virtual learning platform helping girls and women overcoming obstacles to education and help them explore 21st century skills, vocational skills as well as financial literacy. The brilliance of this helpful source through campaigns and advocacy of UfM could be an exceptional tool in the utility of Euro-Mediterranean population.
Also, Turkey relies on Ufm’s new partner (OECD) and its toolkit ‘evidence-based policy making for youth well-being’ that provides analytical tools and policy guidance,for instance, the sub-minimum wage for youth, especially on apprentices at wages below the minimum wage and in this way encourage them to enter labour market. The success of this measure will come through regular basis evaluation of the minimum national wage.Last but optimistically not least, International Labour Organization (ILO) as the first special agency of UN and an ally of UfM, conceives programmes promoting decent work for all employers and employees.
Strategies taken into account in an Action Plan 2018-2021 to support gender-responsive delivery of agenda on gender equality in the area of work, that includes the integration of people with disabilities. As target of this action plan, with the accountability of UfM and technical experts and in order to reduce the training time of not only people with special needs but new employees in general, a virtual guidance could be implemented. A downloaded app for devices, that informs the workers for their responsibilities in simple steps and in an informal language. The app form, could be an instant ‘rescuer’ for workforce in any time. It is about time, not only be the spectators but we as a region, we as a unity, can foster hopes to find out the hidden potential of women and youth and in this direction empower the people we serve with solidarity.
