Bozkurt: Women’s Rights on Agenda of EU Negotiations

The Commission on Women's Rights and Gender Equality" of the European Parliament (EP) accepted the "2020 Perspective for Women in Turkey" report prepared by Emine Bozkurt.

Bozkurt is a Dutch politician of Turkish descent and has been a member of the European Parliament since 2004. She is part of the EP Socialist Faction. Her report deals with the topics of "violence against women", "women education and employment" and "political participation of women" considering both the current situation and strategies till 2020.

Bozkurt emphasized that women should not be perceived as a part of the family or mothers only but that they should be treated as individuals. According to the politician, democracy cannot happen without women.

"You cannot enter the EU on your own. Women's rights need to be placed at the centre of EU negotiations. I am saying in my report that the EU Commission should hold an important place for the 'positive agenda' for the acceleration of the EU accession process", she noted.

Bozkurt underlined that she called for zero tolerance especially regarding violence against women.

"The approval of a new law related to violence against women and also establishing an office concerned with violence against women at the Ankara Chief Prosecution are developments that take steps into the right direction. Developments regarding women employment, the number of women parliamentarians and school enrolment of girls are to be appreciated. But there are lots of things to do still. In this context, my report offers a series of concrete actions that have to be done in this aspect", the politician explained.

Bozkurt announced that the report is going to be on the agenda of the EP General Assembly in May. (ÇT)