Ambassador Berna Kasnakli Versteden (centre) flanked by President Emmerson Mnangagwa(right) and Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Fredrick Shava (left) at Zimbabwe State House when she presented her credentials to the president in January 2022- pic/The Herald
By Dickson Bandera
The Republic of Turkiye stands with Zimbabwe on its mission to combat Gender Based Violence (GBV), the Turkiye Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Her Excellency Berna Kasnakli Versteden has said.
Ambassador Versteden said this during an interview with Newsreel Zimbabwe, where she touched on a number of issues surrounding Zimbabwe-Turkiye relations.
Zimbabwe and Turkiye enjoy cordial bilateral relations that have seen cooperation in education, health, agriculture, transport, and security among other sectors, in the past 41 years. It is because of these deep and cordial relations that the Turkiye Embassy is supporting Zimbabwe to win the war against Gender Based Violence.
Zimbabwe is currently pushing an agenda to combat Gender Based Violence through a variety of strategies, having recorded a worrying rise in GBV cases in recent years. According to 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey Report, in Zimbabwe 39.4% of adolescent girls and women aged 15-49 have experienced physical violence since age 15. This rate spiked by over 60 % during COVID 19 lockdown period according to data presented by Musasa Project.
A National Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender Based Violence in Zimbabwe (2023-2030) was launched by Minister Mutsvangwa recently and is hoped to achieve “a gender just society free from all forms of Gender Based Violence and Harmful Practices by 2030”.
Faced with a similar challenge and motivated by the same conviction to combat this scourge, the Republic of Turkiye condemns violence against women and children and is committed to combating GBV, as guided by the goal of improving women’s rights, including gender equality.
“On Gender Based Violence, I would like to emphasize Türkiye is committed to the goals of improving women’s rights, ensuring their full and equal participation in all spheres of life and strengthening their status. Equality between women and men before the law is one of the basic principles of the Turkish Constitution, said Ambassador Versteden.
“In addition to the constitutional amendment introducing positive discrimination for women, Civil Code, Penal Code and Labor Code were completely revamped in this sense, she added.
Ambassador Versteden reiterated that Turkiye places top priority on combating violence against women, and strategies to achieve this goal were in place. She also said Turkey was collaborating and corroborating efforts from other players.
“Combating violence against women is a high priority policy for my government.
For example, 4th National Action Plan to Combat Violence Against Women 2021-2025 was prepared in consultation with all relevant stakeholders. The Action Plan sets out the framework and specific actions towards strengthening our efforts at local and national levels to prevent violence against women,” she underscored.
“Türkiye also makes significant contributions to the work carried out in the international arena, including in the UN and other intergovernmental organizations, to ensure equality between men and women and empowerment of women. During our G20 Presidency in 2015, we pioneered the establishment of Women 20 (W20) platform to ensure that gender considerations are mainstreamed into G20 work,” she added.
The Turkiye diplomat said the establishment of the Europe and Central Asia Regional Office of UN Women in 2014 marked an important step for turning Istanbul into a regional center for the UN as well as for the further advancement of women’s rights.
Meanwhile, Ambassador Versteden underscored the importance of trade between Harare and Instabul and said the relations will be scaled up.
“Given the cordial relations between Türkiye and Zimbabwe, it is imperative to make the most of our potential in trade and investment. We should concentrate on raising the volume of our bilateral commerce through broadening our business and diversifying partnerships in trade, agriculture, green energy, infrastructure, health and education.
“The Zimbabwe is open for business mantra is an important guideline for Turkish business circles in this regard. We are working on finalizing the legal framework by concluding the agreements pertaining to economic and trade relations. To sum up, we are fully committed to further enhance bilateral trade and business relations,” she reiterated.
The Turkish Embassy in Harare was inaugurated in 2011 while Zimbabwe established its embassy in Turkey in 2019.