JINHA

NEWS CENTER- The regional coalition for women human rights defenders (WHRDs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) made a statement for the KJA Spokesperson Ayla Akat Ata and Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Gültan Kışanak and demand their immediate release.

The regional coalition for women human rights defenders (WHRDs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) reacted to the detention of the Free Women’s Congress Spokesperson Ayla Akat Ata and Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Co-mayor Gültan Kışanak. In the statement, which was released on the official website of the WHRD and entitled, “Gültan Kışanak belongs with us women! We demand her immediate release”, is underlined both Ayla and Gültan are important figures in the women’s movement.

The statement is as follows;

“Gültan Kışanak was arrested and taken under custody in the town where she had been elected mayor with 55% of the vote. This arrest took place the very day she addressed the Parliamentary Commission to Inquire into the Coup Attempt. Gültan Kışanak’s arrest is a concrete example of how the current state of emergency and the ongoing war restrict, limit and make life unbearable for us women…This arrest comes at a time when all that women have gained in local/municipal governments are being destroyed by way of appointed administrators (kayyum). These appointed administrators who have replaced elected mayors by way of state decree have either closed down or rendered ineffective all women’s centers and units operating within municipalities”.

Subsequently, the WHRD MENA Coalition expresses its utmost solidarity with both Kisanak and Akat, as they are WHRDs that represent the systematic crackdown on WHRDs in Turkey, and their sister WHRDs in the MENA region, and finds it flabbergasting that 2 members of parliament are criminalized, especially since they conduct legitimate work in fighting violence and discrimination against women. Moreover, the WHRD MENA Coalition calls on the Turkish Authorities to abide by The United Nations recognition of the important role of WHRDs, as highlighted in both the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (53/144) and the Resolution on Protecting Women Human Rights Defenders (68/181) that mandate states to protect, promote and implement all human rights and to take all necessary measures to ensure the protection of everyone against any violence, threats, retaliation, adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the Declaration, in addition to putting in place gender-specific laws and policies for the protection of women human rights defenders. The WHRD MENA Coalition also calls for their immediate release, while holding the Turkish government responsible for both their psychological and physical well-being.”

(gd)