Within the framework of the European Union and Council of Europe joint programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” and its action “Fostering women’s access to justice in Turkey”, the Council of Europe launched a call for CSOs for their projects proposals focusing on support and empowering women as rights-holders, particularly those from vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, such as women victims of violence and refugee women. In this scope, four proposals of well-established and experienced civil society organisations (CSOs) were selected to provide financial support for their initiatives to increase awareness and legal literacy among women to claim their rights and access to justice and services as equal citizens.
The selected CSOs and their projects are as follows:
1- Soroptimist International (SI) of Turkey – Türkiye Soroptimist Kulupleri (İş ve Meslek Kadınları Dernekleri) Federasyonu:
The proposal submitted by this federation aims to increase women’s legal literacy in three main themes: women’s human rights and combating gender-based violence; women’s economic rights and family law. 500 women in eight provinces (Adana, Ankara, Bursa, Denizli, Eskişehir, Hatay, İstanbul, İzmir, Mersin and Zonguldak) will be provided gamified training (innovative training programmes through games) and consultation sessions to provide legal information to women about their rights and available justice mechanisms to develop their legal literacy. A legal literacy campaign will also be conducted through social media with posts and videos.
2- The Foundation for Women’s Solidarity (FWS) - Kadın Dayanışma Vakfı:
The Foundation’s proposal focuses on increasing the capacity of Women Counselling Centre (WCC) of the Foundation to provide support and information to women victims of violence and on empowering a nationwide network of lawyers for advancing their efforts to transform the legal aid system towards a gender-responsive, accessible, and reliable service for women in vulnerable situations.
3- The Association of Solidarity with Syrian Refugees in Izmir - İzmir'de Suriyeli Mültecilerle Dayanışma Derneği:
The proposal aims to increase the legal literacy and legal awareness of refugee women — who are among the vulnerable women group — through capacity building and awareness raising activities, including development of a mobile application, website, and their content in the languages of target women (Turkish and Arabic), podcasts, videos and a handbook.
4- Flying Broom Foundation - Uçan Süpürge Vakfı:
The proposal focusing on increasing awareness among young legal professionals, and society in general about the girls’ access to justice, challenges and existing barriers through capacity development activities and digital media campaign.
All above-mentioned awareness raising activities are planned to be carried by the CSOs between April and November 2022.
This grant programme is provided within the framework of the action “Fostering women’s access to justice in Turkey” being implemented under the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.
