Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipal Council has unanimously adopted a Position Paper on Combating Gender-Based Violence, designed to identify risks that may give rise to gender-based violence within the municipality or in its fields of activity, and to eliminate such violence by taking preventive measures.

The eighth sitting of the November session of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipal Council was held in the municipal service building. The meeting, chaired by Co-Mayor Serra Bucak, was attended by council members and members of the Municipality’s Women’s Assembly.

At the meeting, the Council unanimously adopted the Position Paper on Combating Gender-Based Violence, which strengthens institutional policies in the struggle against gender-based violence.

Co-Mayor Bucak: The position paper was prepared through joint work

Speaking at the meeting, Co-Mayor Serra Bucak stated that the position paper had been drafted through the joint efforts of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality, the Union of Southeastern Anatolia Region Municipalities (GABB) and the women’s directorates of district municipalities. Co-Mayor Bucak said: “As we have underlined, this position paper concerns the consequences of discrimination, marginalisation and violence arising from gender inequality.”

‘The Position Paper on Combating Violence is a statement of principle’

Emphasising that the Position Paper on Combating Violence is not merely a declaration of goodwill, Co-Mayor Bucak continued:

“Of course, in submitting this to the council today we must say that it is not just an expression of good intentions or wishes. It is indeed a position prepared in good faith, but at the same time it is a statement of principle. It reflects our paradigm and our approach to local government, which is based on women’s freedom and places the struggle against violence against women in public, social and private spheres at the very forefront of its policies. This position paper stands before us as a document in which these policies are set out and operated.

This position paper will be implemented in a form that turns it into a measurable and monitorable policy. As we have said, it is not merely a goodwill statement. It will enable us to put into practice all of the policies, the work, the pathways we will follow, and the monitoring, oversight and follow-up mechanisms that will strengthen this policy and this stance.”

To be implemented across all municipal areas of work

Co-Mayor Bucak stated that the Position Paper applies to the Metropolitan Municipality, DİSKİ (the water and sewerage administration) and relevant municipal subsidiaries, and covers all cases of discrimination, ill-treatment, mobbing, violence and any related negative conduct or attitudes towards women. She underlined that the document is binding on municipal managers, staff and council members, as well as on all enterprises providing services to the municipality and its subsidiaries, those participating in road and similar tenders, those involved in other areas of work with the municipality, and all businesses and companies from which goods and services are procured.

Co-Mayor Bucak continued:

“In other words, this is a position paper that we will apply, across a broad spectrum, to everyone who works with us and carries out procedures with us; to everyone who, in this city and in local government, is engaged in work in the service of local authorities. It sets out our stance against any discriminatory or marginalising attitude, any attitude that could give rise to violence against women, and any stance that might create or reinforce gender inequality. I would already like to wish success and ease to our Council’s Women’s Commission, which will be the main body monitoring, sustaining and implementing this work, and to the Women’s Assembly of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality. I hope that this will be beneficial for our city, our local authorities and all our areas of work.”

Purpose of the Position Paper

1.To identify risks within the municipality or in its fields of activity that may give rise to gender-based violence, and to eliminate such violence by taking preventive measures.

2.To ensure a proper understanding of discrimination based on gender inequality by planning and implementing work that will transform the mindsets, stereotypes and attitudes related to gender-based violence.

3.To develop preventive policies against gender-based violence so as to protect women and all those at risk of being subjected to violence.

4.Where persons falling within the scope of the document are subjected to violence, to establish mechanisms to secure restorative justice and to monitor the effectiveness of these mechanisms.

5.To assume responsibility for any failures arising from gender inequality, to foster a municipal culture that works within a rights-defence framework, to develop policies and to present an exemplary model of municipal governance.

6.To ensure that everyone falling within the scope of the Position Paper has access to information about their rights supporting equality, to act as a point of reference for the development of tools that will enable people to exercise these rights, and thereby to help ensure that women and those subjected to violence feel safe.