I am very pleased to inform you that UNFPA Turkey CO organised a national campaign led by the State Minister and the General Directorate for Women's Status on "Elimination of Violence Against Women Day" very successfully.

In Turkey 58 % of women in east and south-east Anatolia have reported a physical assault in 1998. According to research conducted in Ankara in 1995 almost all women living in slum areas had experienced domestic violence. Another study conducted among women of middle and high income showed that 23 percent of these women had been assaulted or beaten by their husbands.

Demographic and Health Survey 2003 shows that 40 percent of Turkish Women accept that their husbands beat them and even more alarms that 63 percent of the young girls (15 to 19 years old) surveyed felt that beatings in the marriage could be justified.

In partnership with the United Nations Population Fund, the Government of Turkey, through the General Directorate on the Status of Women, has been striving to meet these obligations. For example with UNFPA's support, the Government launched a national campaign on violence against women on 24 November. The message was very clear: Violence is a crime and a human rights violation - STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN NOW. The message was carried to the general public through mass media spots and printed materials.

For the 2004 World Population Day activities UNFPA Turkey decided to draw the attention to one of the most brutal way of gender based violence, honour killings. It took tremendous attention among the press and the public.

With this huge attention on Violence, after two meetings with the State Minister and the General Directorate it was decided to start a "Stop Violence Against Women" Campaign. Within a very short period of time (such as 1.5 months) UNFPA and a small advertising firm prepared the concept of the campaign and activated the Turkish Football Federation and all the football clubs in the Super League, and some celebrities.

On the 24th of November a press conference was held in Istanbul, with the participation of approximately 100 people from the media, NGOs, public institutions and celebrities. The State Minister, UNFPA Representative Ms. Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, UNFPA Local Goodwill Ambassador Ms. Demet Akbag and the President of the Turkish Football Federation delivered a speech on the importance of the issue.

This campaign was the first step of a long-term programme on violence against women in Turkey. A spot film was produced for the campaign with the support of 3 celebrities and a football star. The spot film was broadcasted between the 24th of November and 7th of December in 15 national TV channels. Beside the spot film, a poster, pins, badges, stationaries, banners, t-shirts, press t-shirts were produced for the campaign (some examples are pouched to IERD).

Turkish Football Federation ensured that all the teams of the super league wore t-shirts with the campaign logo on and carried banners saying "stop violence against women" during the football matches played on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of December. League TV (special football TV channel) also gave information about the campaign and used the campaign logo during the matches and the half time.

In addition, on 26 November, before the Friday pray, in all mosques in the country, the religion leaders delivered a speech, prepared by UNFPA, on stopping violence against women and women rights.

Media Coverage of the Campaign

All TV channels mentioned below are broadcasting nationwide. TRT is the state channel, the others are private ones. All of them are our media sponsors for broadcasting the spot-film on "stop violence against women" campaign. Between the 24th of November and 7th of December news about the UNFPA supported campaign was broadcasted in 53 programmes in various state and private TV channels (list of the TV channels are given in Annex). Please find some examples of TV programmes (3hrs 50 min) within the CD in your files.

During the week of 25th of November 215 news were counted in the newspapers and ¼ of them (total 51 news) were about UNFPA supported national campaign led by the State Ministry. Please find some examples of news clippings and photos from the press meeting, which took place on the 24th of November within the CD in your files.

All the relevant bodies (the government institutions, NGOs, media, private sector) expressed their appreciation on the government campaign supported by UNFPA

ANNEX