The Contemporary Debates on Conservative Family: The Case of the Istanbul Convention

In 2011, 11 May, Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence was signed in Istanbul and Turkey was the first country to sign the Convention which entered into force in 2014, August, by the initiatives of ruling government of Justice and Development Party. The Convention, which is the first binding document on violence against women and domestic violence in the international arena, redefines certain concepts such as woman, domestic violence, violence against woman and gender. This redefinition brought about certain legal amendments and the most prominent one was the No 6284 Law on Protection of Family and Prevention of Violence Against Women. While many feminist NGOs and groups, by drawing attention to the historical and traditional context of the violence, construe the convention as a step towards support and remedial the women’s rights, and supported the Convention, for some conservative groups the Convention became the potent symbol attacks to family institution through the intervening years. Hence, during the writing process of this article, on March 22, 2021, Turkish Republic declared unilateral cancellation by a presidential decree. Yet still, the debates go on. This paper intends to analyze the arguments of conservative groups on the Convention.