Turkey's withdrawal from Istanbul Convention: international human rights regime vis-à-vis authoritarian survival

This article traces the raison d'etre for Turkey's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention. It draws upon two bodies of literature: international human rights regimes (IHRR) and authoritarian survival strategies. The Turkish government faced an electoral defeat in local elections 2019, which represented a serious challenge to the ruling party. To compensate for its loss of power and to consolidate its voter base, the government took some steps for its political survival. This article argues that the dynamics of the withdrawal from the Convention lay primarily behind the authoritarian survival strategies of centralization, legitimation, and repression, and secondarily behind the issue area of the Convention as an international human rights regime.

Automated summary

This article examines the reasons behind Turkey's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, linking it to the authoritarian survival strategies employed by the government. The political defeat in the 2019 local elections prompted the ruling party to take steps to consolidate power, leading to the decision to withdraw from the Convention.