Institutionalization of human rights in Turkey : experiences and perceptions of women’s human rights activists and state officials

Download

index.pdf

Date

2013

Author

Arıner, Hakkı Onur

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

293
views

285
downloads

This thesis contends that human rights advocates’ dismissal of attempts by the state in Turkey to institutionalize human rights since the 1990s as insincere or as efforts to delimit and control human rights advocacy is informed by the dominant historical narrative that posits a center-periphery dichotomy as key to explaining Turkey’s democratization process, as well as the actual experiences of the state’s failure to tolerate autonomous human rights institutions. This dismissal is contested on theoretical and practical grounds. A case is made in support of seeing actors as manifestation of past and present relations acted out in specific contexts and thus eschewing characterizations across space and time that reify social actors. In-depth interviews with representatives of the state and civil society organizations in 17 provinces, on the other hand, reveals that despite state selectivity, women’s human rights advocates in the East have managed to turn Provincial and Human Rights Boards into local platforms for deliberation and networking, positively contributing to the protection of women’s human rights. The thesis argues that human rights advocates should support the continued operation of the Boards and its contribution to the functioning of the Human Rights Institution of Turkey due to its long experience of bringing a diverse set of actors together in dealing with individual applications at the local level.

Subject Keywords

Human rights, Civil rights, Women's rights, Women, Women

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12615993/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/22790

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Institutionalisation of human rights in Turkey in the context of international assessment mechanisms Çakır, Çağrı; Göksel, Asuman; Department of European Studies (2013) The thesis aims to analyse the process of institutionalization of human rights in Turkey, by assessing the nature of the institutions with the focus on the dynamics forcing Turkey to establish a totally new structure devoted to human rights. In line with this aim, firstly worldwide development of institutionalization in the area of human rights is examined. The process of accession to EU has been a strong impetus for Turkey to ensure the compliance with the Copenhagen political criteria and to undertake leg...
Rethinking the historical basis for the protection of human rights: The role of universal norms, state power, and social struggles Zeyrek, Bilge Ece; Bedirhanoğlu Toker, Pınar; Department of International Relations (2022-8) The continuation of human rights crises at a time when human rights have become a common value in both international and local politics is a puzzle that needs to be questioned. This thesis searches for an answer to this question by critically overviewing the history of human rights, in which the idea and practice of universal human rights have developed by considering universal norms, state power, and social struggles. The 18th century, the post-1945 period, and the post-Cold War period are examined with th...
Assessing the human rights regime of the Council of Europe in terms of economic and social rights Milli, Ece; Okyayuz, Mehmet; Department of European Studies (2012) This thesis seeks to answer the question whether economic and social rights have the same status with civil and political rights under the human rights regime of the Council of Europe. To this end, the thesis examines the assumptions with regard to the nature of economic and social rights, on the one hand, and civil and political rights, on the other. Second, it seeks to find out whether the nature of economic and social rights is different from that of civil and political rights. Third, it examines how the...
Discourse on human rights : representation of the idea in Turkish human right Duduhacıoğlu, Başak; Rittersberger Tılıç, Helga İda; Department of Sociology (2012) The main concern of this thesis is to analyze the transformation of domestic human rights discourse by looking at the shifting representations of the idea of human rights. The representation of the idea of human rights in ‘Turkey Human Rights Movement Conferences’ in different political contexts during the period 1998-2010 is evaluated with reference to three areas of literature on the idea of human rights and with a social constructionist perspective which begins with the proposition that ideas and practic...
Muslim-Majority States in Human Rights Regimes: Prospects of Progress Kaldırım, Efdal Emine; Bahçecik, Şerif Onur; Department of Middle East Studies (2022-2) Popular perception disassociates human rights and Muslim-majority states resting on claims of incompatibility between Islam and human rights, relativist arguments put forward by leading Muslim-majority states and poor human rights records in these countries. However, human rights have progressed not in a linear manner but more in a discontinuous and fragmentary manner, and the status of advanced institutionalism is a 20th century development which did not leave Muslim-majority as outliers. They opted for jo...

Citation Formats

H. O. Arıner, “Institutionalization of human rights in Turkey : experiences and perceptions of women’s human rights activists and state officials,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2013.