Turkey, which is a state party to CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women), established very important institutional structures including General Directorate of the Status of Women and Equal Opportunities Commission of the Turkey Grand National Assembly (TBMM), with the aim of ensuring implementation of CEDAW on national level and took substantial steps (e.g. Prime Ministry National Action Plan on Gender Equality (2008 – 2013)) guaranteeing the implementation of various policy documents and international agreements Turkey is a part of. A number of Ministries and public institutions included gender equality objective in their strategic plans and this objective was scaled under various headings in the 9th and 10th National Development Plans. In almost all of these policy documents, duties and responsibilities of local administrations were highlighted in order to ensure the gender equality on national level.

Starting from this need, United Nations Joint Programme on the Human Rights of Women and Girls was initiated in 2006 as the first phase of Women Friendly Cities Programme. The programme was implemented with the support of Sabancı Foundation in Nevşehir, Kars, Şanlıurfa, Trabzon and Van Provinces between 2006-2010.

Women Friendly Cities Programme with its sustainable and human rights based approach was chosen among the global six best projects “carried out in the area of human rights” after the evaluation made on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the adoption of Human Rights by UN Population Fund. The Programme became the first project introducing gender equality activities to local administrations in Turkey.

Upon the completion of the first phase of Women Friendly Cities Programme, in accordance with the importance attached to this subject by Ministry of Interior, a Circular dated 19 February 2010 and numbered 2010/10 was issued and called all the cities to implement the “women friendly city” model by benefiting from the examples in İzmir, Kars, Nevşehir, Şanlıurfa, Trabzon and Van provinces and prepare Local Equality Action Plans by establishing Local Equality Mechanisms.

Following the successful implementation of the first phase carried out in six provinces and thanks to the circular issued by Ministry of Interior, the provinces applied to be among the Women Friendly Cities of Turkey. The applicants were ranked on their ‘capacity’ and “needs” basis and a value-weighted mapping was performed for the selection of the new Programme provinces. Following the mapping activity, seven new provinces (Adıyaman, Antalya, Bursa, Gaziantep, Malatya, Mardin, Samsun) were included in the Joint Programme. Second phase of the Women Friendly Cities Programme was initiated in April 2011 and is currently being implemented in total twelve provinces including five cities from the first phase: Nevşehir, Kars, Şanlıurfa and Trabzon provinces.

Books

You can download the books published in the first phase of the project from the links below. (Linked document contents are in Turkish unless otherwise noted)

Kadın Dostu Kentler 2010 (Project Completion Book - Turkish)
Women Friendly Cities 2010 (Project Completion Book - English)
Gender Sensitive Local Service Delivery 2009

Booklets

You can download the booklets published in the first phase of the project from the links below. (Linked document contents are in Turkish)

Women Friendly Cities; Examples from Europe 2008
Women Rights and Local Administrations 2008
Handbook on Urban Rights 2008
What Kind of A City We Should Live in? 2008
To Open a Space for Women in Local Governments 2008
Results of the Opinion Polls Conducted in Six Cities 2009

Regulations

You can download the circulars and regulations regarding the Local Equality Mechanisms issued by Prime Ministry and Ministry of Interior in the framework of the first phase of the project from the links below. (Linked document contents are in Turkish)

Circular 2010/10: Human Rights of Women and Girls
Circular 2006/67: Rights of Women and Girls