************************************************************** The material posted here was provided to the Division for the Advancement of Women by the Government in response to a note verbale. It is being made available in electronic format in the form received. In cases where it was not possible at this time to reproduce charts and tables supplied, these can be obtained by contacting the Division for the Advancement of Women directly. ************************************************************** REPORT ON THE PROGRESS OF IMPLEMENTING THE PLATFORM FOR ACTION TURKEY The Turkish Government, as well as NGOs have attached great importance to the process, participation and outcomes of Beijing Conference. Within this framework, planned and ongoing follow up activities are as follows: The General Directorate on the Status and Problems of Women which is an affiliated body to the Ministry of State, responsible for Women's Affairs and Social Services, initiated several campaigns to disseminate information about the Conference. Seminars, workshops, panels, forums and other innovative gatherings have been organized not only by the Government, but also by NGOs and women studies centers at the universities. The most important outcomes obtained from the above-mentioned works was a consensus on the establishment of an Interministerial Council. The Interministerial Council is expected to have an implementation power and to introduce new mechanisms for the follow up activities. Besides the high level representatives of ministries, representatives of the relevant government agencies and NGOs will take part in the Council. The work towards this target has gone well up until now. Translation of the official UN document into Turkish was completed and is about to be disseminated throughout the country. Summarized version of the Platform for Action is also under way of being published. Besides the above, the ongoing projects which are carried out by the General Directorate through UNDP, the World Bank, UNFPA technical and financial assistance would be revised both in terms of its aims and goals in accordance with the initiatives and the commitments at the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. A Draft Bill on the Amendment of the Civil Code was prepared by women parliamentarians who take only 13 seats of total 550 seats and was submitted to the Parliament. If the Draft Bill is enacted, considerable portion of the reservations on the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women would be removed automatically. More importantly, women parliamentarians gathered after the general election for the formulation of new common strategies towards the goal of equality between women and men. They declared their intention to work collaboratively on women issues without binding themselves to their political preferences. At the regional level, Eurasian Women Cooperation Group was established in accordance with the objectives of the Platform for Action. Work on this issue was initiated by the Turkish Government before Beijing and expanded to the establishment of the Group after Beijing. More than 30 women from 14 Eurasian Countries attended the meeting in March 1996, Ankara, signed memorandum of understanding aiming at the creation of a network that facilitates information flow among the member Countries. The network is planned to operate not later than 1996. On the other hand, Government and NGOs have started working on the realization of the commitments that were declared in Beijing. The first commitment announced by the Turkish Government is related with the removal of reservation from the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women. (Action towards this target is indicated above). The second one concerns extending compulsory primary education from 5 to 8 years and increasing the literacy level of women to one hundred percent by the year 2000. The last commitment regards to the reduction on infant and maternal mortality rates at least by half again by the year 2000. These commitments are derived from essential needs of women in Turkey therefore, they should be understood as a common concern of both government and NGOs. No new and additional resources and funding have been made available to undertake the Platform for Action's initiatives and commitments so far mainly due to budget austerity programme. Some efforts have been made to mobilize available financial sources to realize the initiatives and the commitments of the Platform for Action but, no concrete results have been taken yet. Finally, it should be pointed out that the Turkish Government supports Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women by all means. The Turkish Government also ensures that the follow up of the World Conference on Women should not be carried out as it is. The commitments stated in Platform for Action should be integrated into the outcomes of the other UN Conference such as Copenhagen, Cairo, Vienna, Rio, because each has important implications on women empowerment.