Female Perspective Regarding Individual Disarmament
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Dedeman Hotel
Nazire Dedeman Çağatay
Founder President of Umut Vakfı
Speech Text
Dear Guests, Welcome.
Today is December 10, the Global Human Rights Day. 63 years has passed since the universal charter regarding the most basic right, which is "right of living". But we still encounter problems in protecting the most
basic right, which is right of living. It is not a coincidence that our seminar is held on this day. Nowadays, violence and murder against women have been rising quickly and we have come together to discuss "what we shall do" to prevent this problem,
to exchange our views with our foreign guest speakers and to put the information obtained from this event into use in a gun resolution appropriate to modern and Turkish facts to reduce armed murders and fatal violence against women
.
We established Umut vakfi with an aim to bring up youngsters and individuals, who stay away from violence, who believe in superiority of law and who use peaceful approaches when solving conflicts while fulfilling their responsibilities. We started our
efforts regarding "No to Individual Armament" in this context.
Our goal is to remove guns, which are the extreme points of applying violence and violating human rights, fro our daily lives. This shall only be possible with conscious and deliberate disarmament of the individuals.
Women will contribute a lot to this process. Since men get armed in our society and unfortunately women and children live under shadows of these guns.
It is such a pitty that our children open their eyes in a society in which violence rules. Families apply violence to educate and train their children. They grow up in schools, in front of TVs, playing computer games believing that violence
is a solution and they start applying violence as they grow older.
Women shall have the following duties with respect to individual disarmament: Lets object to armament of men. We shall first erase the belief that using guns is a tradition for Turkish men from our minds
and we shall not permit it. Pressure against women and children underlies this underdeveloped culture. Men have taken it up to themselves to uphold honor, to protect honor. This honor is protected using guns to murder
women.
Individual disarmament is the problem that shall be taken care of very urgently when todays picture is considered. The problem may be solved through measures taken by law makers and education. It is
our duty to educate ourselves for bright future generations and then to educate our children as women.
Dear Guests,
Approximately 300,000 humans die in wars every year. In regions ruled by peace 200,000 individuals lose their lives due to guns. Then
individual armament is a war that no name has been assigned to it.
According to the results of a research that was conducted by Womens Status General Directorate in Turkey in February 2011 41.9% of women become victims of physical violence and 43.9% become victims of
emotional violence. It was concluded that 49.9% of the women subject to violence were low income and 55.7% of them were uneducated women... According to 2010 data we stand 126th among 134 countries in
Social Inequity Index. Education provides the chance to learn about rights, to interpret them and to use them.
Guns are in average used to kill 1000 individuals every day. There are more than 875 million guns and 75% of these guns are possessed by individuals. 8 million new guns and 15 billion bullets are produced
annually: 2 bullets per person! It is estimated that 9 million guns exist in Turkey. from every 100 individuals 12 of them possess a gun. Turkey stands 14th among 178 countries with respect to armament. It stands 31st
among 48 countries with respect to transparency regarding gun trades. 14% of the murders in Turkey take place with registered guns.
We will discuss two very important subjects today: Armed violence and violence against women. The point in which these two important subjects intersect shall become the focus point of todays discussion. A resolution was
prepared regarding violence against women. Unfortunately, the resolution prepared for individual armament became invalid last year. we hope that both of these resolutions become successful in breaking the cycle regarding violence in Turkey
during this legislative session. Legislations are our primary goals. Then we need to raise awareness regarding these legislations and to educate women
in the society to protect their rights. Women organization have a great responsibility in both stages. We have to follow up on problems and deficiencies in execution of the legislations and
we have to collaborate with media to address these problems. we are ready to present our knowledge, networks and international experiences for use of women organizations and societies as Umut Vakfi. Our goal shall be accomplishing a modern world and a modern Turkey
in which no signs of violence exist.
With a wish for great futures...