Gender Equality in the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey

Year 2008, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 18 - 26, 01.06.2008

Elif Küzeci

Abstract

“I do not wish them to have power over men, but over themselves.” Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women (With Strictures on Political & Moral Subjects), 1792 Equality, included among the concepts of the “axle” of human rights,1 is protected seemingly for its significance in the constitutions of contemporary democratic states. Such protection pronounces itself particularly in these constitutions as a form of determination of “general equality” as the main principle, and of the embodiment of the “ban on discrimination”. Furthermore, it is seen that “the principle that women and men must have equal rights” is arranged as in specific norms in these constitutions in quite a few of contemporary and democratic countries with the aim of ensuring gender equality.