End Domestic Violence

End Domestic Violence! Campaign

Domestic violence is a common phenomenon in Turkey as it is in the world. It is found that there is physical violence in 34% of families, and verbal violence in 53%. The rate of violence against children is 46%. And 80% of people subjected to violence think there is nothing to do to avoid it.

In Turkey, the rate of honor killings is also considerably high. In a poll, 37.4% of 430 participants told they approve honor killings. Numerous researches conducted in Turkey on domestic violence showed remarkable results.

In 2004, Hürriyet decided to run an awareness raising campaign against domestic violence as part of its corporate citizenship strategy. Launched in October 2004, the campaign includes the Governorship of Istanbul and Contemporary Education Foundation (ÇEV) as project partners. CNN Türk joined the campaign, later. In summer 2008, Aralik Foundation got involved with it, as well.

The aim of the campaign is to create awareness on domestic violence, to lead to positive behavioral change and to contribute to finding solutions on the political level. To that end, “Education Buses” visited the neighborhoods of Istanbul and various cities of Turkey; reached thousands of people from different backgrounds. Advertising campaigns were run; brochures and books were published; annual conferences were held. This happened to be the first campaign in the Turkish media sector on this scale.

In June 2006, Hürriyet’s campaign was introduced to MPs in the European Parliament in Brussels. In October, the campaign received the United Nations’ grand award in Public Relations. In November 2006, the campaign was praised on EU Commission’s Progress Report for its contributions to the increase in awareness of Turkish public on domestic violence. The campaign was also introduced as a role-model in the report of Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on Women Rights.

In 2007, Hürriyet launched a domestic violence hotline in Istanbul with the Governorship of Istanbul and ÇEV, to which European Union gave funds, too. 18 psychologists, various lawyers and 96 police officers were trained for this hotline 0212 656 96 96. Currently, six expert psychologists and a lawyer are working for the hotline available 7/24. So far it has been of help to thousands of women.

Hürriyet adopted “fight against domestic violence” as a human resources policy. The Newspaper executes this campaign by the principals of determination, sustainability and creativity, and aims to expand this hotline service to all over the country in 2009.

End Domestic Violence