‘We were not coerced’,
THE TRNC’s nine female MPs have pledged to join forces to end all forms of domestic violence and sex slavery in the country, as well as human trafficking and peoplesmuggling.
The promise came in a joint statement from the women parliamentarians, from three political parties, to mark Thursday’s International Women’s Day.
It was signed by Interior Minister and People’s Party (HP) MP Ayşegül Baybars Kadri, Republican Turkish Party (CTP) feminist MP Doğuş Derya, CTP colleagues Fazilet Özdenefe and Sıla Usar İncirli, HP’s Gülşah Sanver Manavoğlu and Jale Refik Rogers, and UBP’s İzlem Gürçağ Altuğra, Resmiye Canaltay and Yasemin Öztürk.
The MPs saluted the struggle of all women for equality, democracy and justice and expressed determination to join forces in finding common ground to address the problems faced by women in the TRNC.
The statement said: “We are aware of the fact that gender equality is an issue which does not recognise political parties, and will . . . act with a common wisdom to allow the organisation of a Gender Equality Department — set up as part of efforts to promote gender equality; to bring an end to human trafficking and smuggling and sex slavery; to make essential amendments to the law regulating the rights and inheritance of children born out of wedlock; and also to ensure the implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) as well as the Council of Europe convention on preventing and combatting violence against women and domestic violence.”