Women's rights

At least 474 women were murdered in Turkey in 2019, according to an annual report by Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracağız Platformu (We Will Stop Femicides Platform), a women's rights organization that monitors violence against women.

The number of women killed increased in 2019 compared to the previous year, the platform, which keeps a tally of murders of women, said in the report.

Some 53 women were killed across Turkey in September, making it the most deadly month of this year so far for women, according to a report by Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracağız Platformu (We Will Stop Femicides Platform), a women's rights organization that monitors violence against women.

Women's rights protesters are taking to the streets for the sixth time in as many months as anger mounts in Japan over 'outdated' rape laws, after a man was allowed to walk free despite sexually assaulting his daughter for years.

Women's rights activists have launched a campaign against proposals of bringing the death penalty back after recent incidents of violence against women caused public outrage. The campaign's hashtag #idamçözümdeğil (death penalty is not a solution) has been spreading on social media.

"The government does not enforce the law which is part of the constitution and a requirement under international agreements," Nuray Cevirmen, secretary of women's rights at the Human Rights Association in Ankara, told BIRN.

Cevirmen said that Turkey has a very conservative, male-dominated society in which men are resistant to challenges to their privileges.

Many countries in Eastern Europe face what is often perceived as a population crisis. Highly skilled people of reproductive age are leaving their countries to look for better opportunities elsewhere.

The healthcare rights of women in Croatia are under threat from a blurring of boundaries between church and state, critics warn.

Remarkable gains have been made in expanding choices for women since 1969, when UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, was established. But despite progress, hundreds of millions of women today still face economic, social, institutional and other barriers that prevent them from making decisions about fundamental aspects of their lives.

Kosovo's legal framework enshrines the equal rights of women, but discrimination remains rife when it comes to property and inheritance.

Women in Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Romania held protest rallies on International Women's Day on March 8, to draw attention to the plight of women in their countries, where traditional patriarchal values remain prevalent.