So-called 'honour killings' have become an issue of concern for the international community. In Turkey, in particular, the practice still exists despite the adoption of the relevant human rights instruments. This study evaluates how effective current international human rights law, and in particular the recent Istanbul Convention, have been in eradicating so called 'honour killings' on Turkey. The thesis argues that the improvement of the status of women in Turkey in accordance with gender equality as well as the application of the principle of state due diligence, both requirements of the Istanbul Convention and international human rights law, are fundamental means towards eradicating the killing women in the name of 'honour'. The study looks at the application of such standards as well as the current obstacles using the feminist approaches, in particular the intersectionality approach. Through such lens, the study discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the Turkish Constitution, Turkish Civil Code, Turkish Penal Code and Law to Protect Family and Prevent VAW and questions the judicial approach to the implementation of the women's right to life. It identifies the lacunae in the Turkish legislation that allow inadequate legal protection for women and the inconsistency of the judicial approach to the definition of the so-called honour killings in the judgements. The study then recommends some concrete amendments to the relevant legal provisions in order to better reflect the international framework and the feminist approaches.

In international humanitarian discourse, gender-based violence against women have long been recognised as a human rights violation and described as the most extreme expression of unequal power relations between men and women (UN 1993). Using a qualitative content analysis to examine the GREVIO reports of Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, the aim of this thesis is to outline the differences between and within these states regarding their response to violence against women. Drawing on insights from feminist political theory, and especially Nordic feminist theorists, these differences are made visible using the three concepts: hegemonic discourse, contradictory effects, and boundaries (Kantola and Dahl 2005). The theoretical background is complemented by theoretical contributions from feminist understandings of violence against women. In analysing the main differences between the states, many of these differences can be derived from the fact that the three states frame the violence differently, with Sweden adopting a gender-based frame while Denmark and Finland adopt gender-neutral frames of the violence. In analysing differences within states, there are two distinct forms of differences: differences due to a gap between principle and practice, and differences between various parts of the country. The findings of this thesis may provide a base for future in-depth studies of the Nordic, women-friendly, welfare states.

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There is an increasing global anti-rights movement—the child of marriage of the right-wing populist and anti-gender movements—that affects the rights of not only women and LGBTQIs but also refugees, asylum seekers, and various minorities. Although this research only focuses on the event of Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, it provides valuable perspective to understand and prevent the further spread of anti-gender and right-wing populist tactics and rhetoric. Despite the limitations, by offering and adapting various concepts such as political diffusion, absence in the media, and exiting treaties, the research revealed meaningful connections and insight while attempting to identify the possible effects of the event. While the influence and role of the Polish and Hungarian governments and other opposition actors on the right-wing populist and anti-gender movements between 2021 and March 2023 are exposed, the possible impacts of encouragement and an increase in anti-rights tendencies are presented. In this way, this research contributes to the literature by offering a current assessment and developments regarding the anti-rights movement in Eastern Europe while filling the gap within by considering the approach of political diffusion and the withdrawal's resonance in the movement.

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With 2011 womens movement in Turkey has a new tool for combating violence against women in their hands / Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, a.k.a. the Istanbul Convention. The Convention will add several new tools to the ones used by the womens movement in Turkey since 1980s.

This essay intends to interpret the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (CETS No. 210) using discourse analysis and theories of the sexual contract (Pateman 1988) and the male protective logic (Young 2003). The purpose is to find out which feminist discourses can be made visible in the convention, which subject positions are constructed within the framework of those discourses and how re- sponsibilities are distributed in contemporary policy documents. In summary the results show that the central subject positions within the convention consist of the protector, the victim and the perpetrator, which in turn include the majority of underlying subjects that both overlap each other and sometimes oppose each other's positions. The same subject who holds the po- sition of protector can also be the perpetrator and in this paradox are found, among others, the state and the violent man. A feminist discourse that underlies the convention's presentation is that unequal structures between binary gender categories, which is described as a fundamental problem when it comes to violence against women. Pointing out these structures risks of re- producing stereotypical notions of women and men as generalizable groups, but the convention also contributes through these representations to an international recognition of patriarchal structures and to shift the problem of men's violence against women and domestic violence from being a private matter to a problem for which the state should take responsibility.

The submitted thesis entitled Framing of the Istanbul Convention in Selected Czech Media examines the way in which this particular topic was presented in printed and online media in the year 2018. The Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, also known as the Istanbul Convention, is a document, in which Czech Republic, by accepting it, has to commit to the a necessary steps to fight against gender based violence in our country. The aim of this work is to identify and present the specific media frames that have been used in the connection with the discussions surrounding the Istanbul Convention and to describe the construction of the actors around this document. The research sample consists of four printed pieces of media, namely Hospodářské noviny, Lidové noviny, Mladá fronta DNES and Právo and eight online journals aktualne.cz, blesk.cz, denik.cz, eurozpravy.cz, novinky.cz, parlamentnilisty.cz, reflex.cz and seznamzpravy.cz. Qualitative methods based on grounded theory techniques were used for the research. The result of open and axial coding is in total nine media frames about the way in which the Istanbul Convention is framed in Czech media.

The purpose of this study was to examine Machofabriken 2.0 through discourse analysis.Examine how concepts are filled with meaning and what alternative meanings that are excluded. Ialso scrutinized what pedagogic tools and strategies put forward to achieve change and discuss ifit is possible to approach ordinary men as violent. Furthermore, I have analyzed underpinningassumptions of gender and violence and how masculinities, femininities, violence, andresponsibility are discursively produced. I have paid extra attention to three short movies; RealLife (Sexual harassment and bystander), Ice Cream (Consent and Free will) and Step-up(Pornography) with inspiration from feministfrequency.se to explore visual media and to payattention to the Male Gaze, objectification and sexualization of women, constructed differencesbetween men and women. Feminist Frequency provided me with the concept of Tropes in theexamination of representations of boys and girls in the short movies.The examination has uncovered gender biases in Machofabriken, which privilege the male overthe female and runs the categories fixed and reveals how the masculine discourse has constructedwomen as the Other. This thesis argues, it has dismantled the destructive masculine discourse andhow subjects of both genders are positioned and constituted within that discourse. This alsomeans the construction of gender is already there, before the text, before the short movies.

In July 2018, Bulgaria’s Constitutional Court rejected the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (better known as the Istanbul Convention). This rejection came following a wave of civic activism, which scholars characterized as the first anti-gender campaign in Bulgaria. Three years after the Constitutional Court’s decision, the Istanbul Convention continues to occupy online and offline public space, still provoking controversy and sparking heated debates. Employing critical discourse analysis (CDA), this thesis analyzes comments under Facebook posts mentioning the Istanbul Convention between 2017 and 2021. The posts appear on the Facebook pages of two ideologically opposing civil organizations that actively participated in the debate around the Convention’s ratification. Using Reyes’ (2011) concept of de/legitimization discourse, this paper analyses the online discussion around the Convention, exploring how de/legitimization discourses are utilized by the two ideologically opposing communities. To account for the role of Facebook as a discursive practice, the study further explores how the architectures and affordances of Facebook as a platform contribute to the polarization of the IC discussion. The analysis reveals the instrumentality of de/legitimization discourses for constructing pro- and anti-IC activist groups, for redefining the meaning of ‘gender’ in Bulgarian society, and later for transforming the meaning of the phrase ‘the Istanbul Convention’ to outgrow a reference to one document and become a signifier of values. Additionally, the study highlights three types of Facebook affordances that were found to affect the discussion’s polarization: identity, social, and functional.