On March 7, 2012 – on the eve of the International Women’s Day – the official closing ceremony of the Twinning project “Promoting Gender Equality in Working Life” took place in Ankara.

The project was implemented in cooperation between the German Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Turkish Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the German Association for Social Security Policy and Research and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights (LBI-GMR) from September 2010 to March 2012. During the closing event officials from Germany, Austria and the EU Delegation as well as representatives of the involved organizations presented the results of the activities conducted in the 18 project months to an interested audience.

In the first project component, 16 Turkish laws and by-laws were analyzed and compared to the EU gender equality acquis under the auspices of the LBI-GMR. Karin Lukas, Junior Partner Project Leader of the LBI-GMR, presented the elaborated recommendations, which suggest amendments in the fields of labour law, social security law, trade union law and civil servants law.
Of particular significance is the attention the experts reports have been given so far by the Turkish Parliament. In February 2012 Karin Lukas was invited by the Parliament and UN Women to present the proposals for amendments in the said legislation fields in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. The great interest especially by the Parliamentary Commission for Equal Opportunities of Women and Men is a positive signal that the recommendations will be taken into consideration in the future legislative process.

Beside the evaluation of relevant legislation, the project was dedicated to capacity building within the Turkish public sector through trainings, study trips and internships, as well as on awareness-raising by means of public information activities (through e.g. brochures, events, podcasts). At the closing ceremony, 37 Turkish experts, who had taken part in specific train-the-trainer-seminars, received their formal certificates as “Gender Equality Trainers”.

Moreover, the winners of the newly created “Gender Equality Award” were announced. This prize honours the efforts of Turkish enterprises to promote gender equality, and in 2012 was given to the textile companies Boyner Holding and Suteks for their commitment to a gender-sensitive working environment.

The legal recommendations of the first component are available for download on the project fact-sheet.