JINHA

NEWS CENTER – In a statement released on Tuesday, United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) representatives to Turkey condemned the murder of Özgecan Aslan and called on Turkey to effectively implement the Istanbul Convention, an agreement for combating violence against women.

Two out of every five women in Turkey is exposed to physical and sexual violence. Despite being one of the first signatories of the convention in 2012, says the statement, Turkey has shown "insignificant improvement" since 2008 in preventing violence against women, says the report.

The report provides the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, approved by 189 countries, as a model for effective methods for combating violence against women by targeting root causes of gender inequality. The platform's recommendations include "better services for women survivors of violence and for effective legislation that protects women from domestic violence and other forms of gender-based violence, including sexual harassment and rape, and for the effective persecution and punishment of the perpetrators."

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