07/10/2024 | Writer: Kaos GL
CHP Deputy Chairperson Gökçe Gökçen highlighted the importance of LGBTI+ rights during her address at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Gökçe Gökçen, Republican People’s Party (CHP) Izmir MP and Deputy Chairperson responsible for the Ministry of Justice, addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Gökçen emphasized in her speech that the Istanbul Convention is essential for ensuring that everyone can feel safe:
“The fight against homophobia and transphobia had led to many advances. Particularly instruments like the Istanbul Convention are essential to ensure that everyone feels safe and feels that they belong in society, especially concerning the prevention of and fight against every form of violence. However the struggle has no end and fighting in just one aspect is never enough. Discrimination persists, access to social economic and rights remains problematic and physical and psychological violence continue unabated. Moreover each generation witnesses the renewal of hate speech fueled by phobic rhetoric and misinformation.”
Gökçen drew attention to the fact that LGBTI+ people cannot access their most basic rights and used the following statements:
“Civil society that defends the rights of LGBTQ is being targeted. LGBTQ people cannot access even their most basic fundamental rights. Young people who are rejected by their families are unable to exercise their right to shelter. They cannot find jobs and sometimes they cannot even vote due to misleading information on their identities. Simply expressing who they are to their loved ones, becomes one of the most risky moments of their lives. Many are forced to hide their identities throughout their life. When they are murdered, it is their friends, who must even fight for the data to be publicly recorded. Those, who use family values as an excuse to violate human rights, do not make an effort to ensure that families can live together happily and in dignity.”
“Can we truly protect progressive texts like the Istanbul Convention?”
Gökçen concluded her remarks as follows:
“Discrimination against woman intertwines with cruelty towards animals, just as violence against children overleapt with that against the LGBTQ community and refugees. As violence against LBQ women increases, it is increasingly hidden and ignored. As long as states do not publish credible data, violence remains concealed. Those, who employ hateful rhetoric, can then assert that violence is exaggerated. Today on one side, there are those, who defend democracy and human rights as a whole, and on the other those, who strengthen their authority through a politics of hate to marginalize the vulnerable. The question here is: Can we truly protect progressive texts like the Istanbul Convention? If we allow the authority of our Council’s human rights instruments to lose its power today, what other fundamental right be compromised tomorrow?”
Tags: human rights, women
