With the Sustainable Development Goals, it is tried to achieve gender equality. However, it is still being determined how inclusive it is and whether it is necessary for a sustainable society. The United Nations has given a wide area to gender equality for the Sustainable Development Goals it is working to achieve by 2030. He researched and reported that a multiplier effect would be created by ensuring sustainability. Within the scope of the objectives, it is aimed to empower all women and girls.
It has become a "target" in itself with the global women's movements and efforts. In the target list, many targets have been determined under the heading #5. 9 targets have been set against the special situations women and girls face. Fourteen sub-targets were set under nine targets.
Ensuring gender equality is a must to achieve goals such as combating poverty, access to health, decent work, peace, and justice under the umbrella of the Sustainable Development Goals. To achieve these goals, it should focus on gender equality.
Among the objectives, the importance is emphasized under the 5th heading. With less than ten years left, gender equality will remain an unrealized goal unless the global community increases its resolve.
At the current rate of progress, it will take another 286 years to reform legal frameworks for promoting, implementing, and monitoring gender equality in public life. For example, to end child marriage by 2030, progress over the past ten years would need to be 17 times faster. Around the world, gender inequality impoverishes women and deprives them of fundamental rights and opportunities for well-being.
What are the Gender Equality Goals under Title 5?
Sustainable Development Goals include 17 main goals and 169 sub-targets as a whole. It was accepted by all member states, including Turkey, at the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, 2015. Goal 5 has nine goals and 14 indicators.
The targets are:
End all forms of discrimination against women and girls everywhere,
Elimination of all forms of violence against all women and girls in public and private spheres, including trafficking, sexual and all forms of exploitation,
Elimination of all harmful practices such as child marriage, early forced marriage, and female genital mutilation,
Recognition and appreciation of unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of utilities, infrastructure, and social protection policies and the promotion of nationally appropriate sharing of responsibility within the household and family;
Ensuring women's full and effective participation in the decision-making processes of political, economic, and social life and equal opportunities for women to be leaders in decision-making at all levels,
Ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health rights in line with the conference outcomes of the 6th International Conference on Population and Development Program of Action, Beijing Platform for Action, and their review conferences,
Reforms to ensure that women have equal rights to access economic resources and own and control land and other types of property, financial services, inheritance, and natural resources, by national laws.
Developing the use of technologies that support women's empowerment, especially information and communication technologies,
It includes objectives such as adopting and strengthening sound policies and legally enforceable legislation to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls at all levels.
What is the Situation of Gender Equality in Turkey under the Sustainable Development Goals?
In 2019, the Sustainable Development Goals were reviewed by the United Nations. It has been determined that there are structural regressions in gender equality and empowerment of women and girls in Turkey. They revealed the reasons for the regression through the report. With the related report, the law numbered 6284, which protects poverty alimony, violence against women, and domestic violence received by women after divorce, has been examined.
The grievances experienced after the termination of the Istanbul Convention were examined, and attention was drawn to the attacks on the vested rights of women. Recommendations are included in the report to reach the targets and ensure gender equality until 2030.
Equal partnership relations have been established with women and non-governmental organizations serving independently to realize the goals. However, more is needed. At the same time, regular inspections should be carried out by establishing a Sustainable Development Goals mechanism to be determined by the United Nations.
Priority should be given to determining sub-targets specific to Turkey. The path of those who oppose the perception of equality should be blocked with political determination. International commitments on gender equality and violence against women, such as CEDAW and Sustainable Development Goals, especially the Istanbul Convention, should be fulfilled.
Early and forced marriages should not threaten young women's lives. If it does not comply with other relevant recommendations, legal equality in Turkey will be tangential to women's lives and will not create the desired effect.
Author:
Çağın Ergün
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