The Free

Women’s rights in Turkey: The Year 2020 in Review

By SCF Stockholm Center for Freedom-shared with thanks

The year 2020 has witnessed an increase in rights violations against women in Turkey, with rising numbers of femicide cases amid discussions of withdrawing from the İstanbul Convention, a Council of Europe treaty designed to prevent violence and domestic abuse against women.

According to women’s organizations 269 women were killed by men this year and 152 more women died under suspicious circumstances. Activists, academics, opposition politicians and journalists have criticized the government for not taking the necessary steps to prevent these deaths.

Another issue that caused an outcry in 2020 was the unlawful strip-search of political prisoners and their visitors. Many victims came forward on social media after human rights activist and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu brought the issue to parliament and started a campaign on social media.

Here is some of the most important news from 2020 in the field of women’s rights:

At least 15,557 women murdered in Turkey since start of AKP rule

Violence against women has dramatically increased since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, and at least 15,557 women have been murdered in Turkey since then, according to a report prepared by human rights activist and main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu in March 2020. Read More…

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Remove Bolsonaro now to face up to the Health Catastrophe in Brazil

“the tragedy and collapse of the health system in the Amazon and the Covid-19 pandemic are worsening throughout the country under the clinical eye of Bolsonaro.”

info from… Freedom of expression shared with thanks. translations TheFreeOnline

Brazil needs to expel the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, from power today to face with tangible results the biggest health crisis in a century that undermines the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic, recognized jurists demanded.

In statements to the Rede Brasil Atual news portal, former Justice Minister Eugênio Aragão and Pedro Serrano, from the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo, valued that the impeachment process, at the very least, would probably have reduced support for the ex-military president.

A burial takes place in an area reserved for COVID-19 victims at the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery in Manaus, Brazil, on January 5, 2021

Grim start to 2021 for Brazil with over 200,000 Covid deaths

In the same way, it would also reveal to a good part of the supporters the reality of his behavior towards the pathogen, as well as its effects.

But, Rede recalls, the head of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, does not want this path because he rules out opening a political trial against the former Army captain.

Without offering evidence, President Jair Bolsonaro said most Brazilians don’t want to be vaccinated, even as the country passes 200,000 Covid-19 deaths.

“As far as I know, less than half would be willing to take the vaccine,” the far-right leader told crowds outside his official residence Thursday. “This is from a poll I’ve taken. I’ve taken it in the street, the beach,” he added.

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Hunger Queues in Madrid Blizzard .. Deaths as poor area goes 2 Months without Power

By CIARÁN GILES and MANU FERNÁNDEZ from apnews.com . Shared with thanks illustrations added

Hunger queue in Cañada, Madrid

As a record snowfall blanketed much of Spain this week and temperatures plunged below zero, few suffered the consequences as severely as the thousands of residents of the La Canada Real Galiana mega shantytown outside Madrid, long a major embarrassment for Spain.

MADRID (AP) — As record snowfall and sub-freezing temperatures enveloped much of normally temperate Spain, few residents suffered as severely as the thousands who live in La Cañada Real Galiana, a mega-shantytown outside Madrid that is ranked as one of the biggest slum areas in Europe.

Las 150 familias más vulnerables de la Cañada Real serán realojadas

First person dies for lack of electricity in Cañada Primera denuncia por el fallecimiento de una personja por falta de luz

Much of La Cañada Real had already been without electricity for months before Storm Filomena arrived. Officials claim that’s because marijuana growers in the informal settlement diverted power supplies to indoor plantations that overwhelmed the grid.

The extended outage meant that more than half of the 7,500 residents in the “poblado,” or township, remained without power during brutal weather more suited to Siberia.