The "Equality, Justice and Women's Summit" was held at the Istanbul WOW Hotel on the 30th November and 1st of December 2017. Müjgan Suver, chairwoman of Marmara Group Foundation EU and Human Rights, was part of the organizational committee.
Nearly 1,500 journalists, politicians, academics, and female activists participated in the meeting organized by non-governmental organizations focused on women's fight for equality and justice.
8 panels and 5 workshops were held at the Summit which was opened with the song "There are Women".
There were 27 speakers with the moderators, well-known by the community. In the "Equality, Justice and Women's Summit", knowledge and expreiences were shared as well as different problems and their solutions. The conclusion report that was shared with the public at the end of the summit emphasized once more that the problem of gender equality is a problem of democracy for there will be no justice without equality. At the end of the workshops a "women's road map" was identified by active citizens.

Declaration of Consequences for Equality, Justice, Women's Summit 2017 

We Want Equality For Justice.

Expectations from Political Will:

            Citizens with different gender, language, religion, sexual orientation, political thought must have equal opportunities.

International conventions that Turkey has signed and is obliged to execute, and which ensure gender equality, have to be implemented; in case contrary to these agreements the Ombudsman shall be consulted.

            The oppression and violence that hostile hate speeches have on women must be prevented. A common language that prioritizes an egalitarian, ethic and peace language has to be established.

            The state of emergency which fuels violence, prevents organization, and takes away democracy, should be eliminated immediately.

            Law No. 6284 on the Protection of the Family and the Prevention of Violence Against Women must be imposed on law enforcement to ensure an effective implementation.

            State-sponsored family policies must be abandoned. A Ministry of Women has to be established to promote women's gender equality.

            It must be aimed to eliminate all kinds of gender-based violence against women by preventive, deterring and punishing political approaches and practices.

            Coordination centers, NGO advisory boards and related NGO units have to be established in local governments to enhance the dialogue with the civil society.

            NGO Coordination Unit must be added to the norm cadre regulation of The Ministry of Internal Affairs, a working has to be written; there has to be a quota for the budget and also women and LGBT associations.

            Gender equality must be included in the national education curriculum; unacceptable expressions such as "obeying the husband is worshiping" must be removed urgently from the curriculum.

            Public officials regularly meeting women, children and LGBT individuals have to be regularly trained in gender, violence against women and LGBT rights.

            An economic model based on gender equality has to be adopted; the care economy that is the the biggest obstacle to women's participation in the workforce, has to be ensured by central authorities.

            To ensure gender equality, a special budget should be allocated at the level of local and central government, socially sensitive budgeting must be implemented, and gender-based budget statistics should be compiled.

            The risks that comes with the population registration on demand must be avoided.

Judicial expectations:

            The judiciary has to function in a way that moves inequality away from the center instead of humiliating women and consolidating the oppressive patriarchy.

            In areas where sexist decisions are made, especially in criminal proceedings, an effective monitoring mechanism has to be established in the Judicial and Prosecutorial Council. Gender equality based courses and practices should be added to the curriculum of the Justice Academy of Turkey in terms of vocational training of Judges and Public Prosecutors.

            Increasing the ratio of women judges and prosecutors in the judiciary has to be a basic policy priority. Equal distribution of women (parity) shall be increased by means of accelerators such as quotas, numerical targets to increase with years.

            With these instruments, a further involvement of women in Superior Courts, top positions in the Ministry of Justice and as public prosecutors shall also be provided.

Expectations from Political Parties and Party Leaders:

            In order to increase the presence of women in decision mechanisms, full equality-parity understanding must be legally guaranteed and implemented in political parties and decision-making bodies.

            It is not the political approach that encourages women to work harder that has to be developed but the kind of politics that empowers by opening up more space.

            The number and effectiveness of women's assemblies at all levels must be increased to strengthen local women's organization.

            The issue regarding marriages executed by muftis must be taken to the Supreme Court by opposition parties.

            A new political model has to be created that adopts a different perspective and language of politics for the younger generation.

            Benefit has to be taken out of the knowledge, experience and solution proposals of independent women's organizations accumulated over 30 years.

Civil Society Expectations

            Constitutional and collective organizations have to be established that support knowledge-based solidarity, emphasize individual law, and that involve a horizontal organization; roof organizations that are above political parties have to be built.

            Political parties in partnership with the private sector and civil society must initiate a major gender equality campaign by using all platforms including written, visual and digital media.

            Women's organizations and activists should need to come together to develop problem-based organization models.

            Civil Society has to be rejuvenated by developing technology-based organizational models and digital platforms with innovative methods.

            The Equality Justice and Women's Summit shall be held annually and has to function in order to ensure Gender Equality.