The University of Connecticut Humanities Institute hosted a Fellow’s Talk by Dr. Zehra Arat on Wednesday, Jan. 31. Arat is a professor of political science at UConn and focuses her research on human rights. This includes women’s rights, democratization and development.
Her presentation, titled “Human Rights Norms in Turkey: A Historical Analysis of Political Party Programs” is a book project that asks the question: Can countries develop human rights norms without external influence or pressure? She chose to focus her research on the nation of Turkey from 1920 to 2018. To approach the issue, she explained that she wanted to “see how norms were developed in Turkey” and if they could be strictly through international intervention.
For a long time, Arat based her research on Turkey’s transition from a one-party system to a multi-party parliamentary government. Arat stated that “norms are articulated by the elite, but which elites would be the most important?” These political parties in Turkey introduced various programs in order to garner support internally, and Arat approached these programs with specifics in mind. She looked at when “human rights” and related terms appeared, which rights are spelled out and gained frequency, if rights are mentioned favorably or critically and what factors — national or international — might have influenced changes over time.
She also talked about how Turkey has participated in international relations. She mentioned that Turkey was a founding member of the United Nations, joined the Council of Europe in 1949, joined the International Labor Union in 1932 and was one of the original signatories of the 1975 Helsinki Final Act. Instances such as this reveal that Turkey has played a role in international politics, but that begs the question: Has international influence impacted national norms? Arat mentioned that “different political entities would use these words rather than be direct with their human rights policies,” in relation to international documents.
To summarize her answer to the question: Yes. Countries can develop human rights norms without pressure from external influences. Arat goes over two aspects of Turkey’s history to support her answer: women’s political rights and recent party programs that include specific rights that are not included in international doctrines.
For the political rights of women, Arat described how Turkey allowed women the right to vote in 1930, this extended to nationwide elections in 1934. This predates the international agenda as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was published in 1948, along with the UN Convention on the Political Rights of Women in 1952. Turkey had been progressive in terms of gender equality before the rest of Europe, signaling to scholars that this was not an impact of international pressure.
As for the party programs, Arat listed specific rights that were pushed by political parties in Turkey, such as the right to education in the mother tongue, language collective rights and the right to live long. Rights such as this were not found in any international documents during that time, meaning that they were distinct to Turkey.
Arat goes on to elaborate further on the case study of women’s political rights. She approached the subject in three ways: the pattern of change, ideological differences and causal/triggering factors. When examining the pattern of change, Arat saw a shift from there being no mention of women in politics to one where they viewed women’s rights and needs through a very paternalistic,pro-natalist perspective. This meant that women were seen more so as mothers than individuals who needed protection. This would go on to a shift towards recognized women’s rights that we see today — where women have political rights.
The ideological differences were mostly based around the earlier, increasingly feminist parties and the more reluctant and dualistic parties. These feminist parties pushed for modernization and identified as left-wing or socialist. The dualistic parties were towards the center-right of the political spectrum and were more concerned with pro-business programs.
The causal and triggering factors were the biggest points for Arat. She mentioned how the women’s movement saw two waves: one from the 1920s to the 1930s, and another from the 1990s to today. The second factor that goes hand-in-hand with these movements is the European Union’s candidacy for Turkey. “The second women’s movement used the EU candidacy as leverage to push forward feminist programs,” Arat stated.
Arat’s presentation was met with a response by Dr. Tracy Llanera, an assistant professor of philosophy at UConn. She commended Arat’s work for looking at human rights norms through national and local levels. Llanera acknowledged how the spheres of political parties tend to be ignored by political scientists. “Duty and accountability aren’t a priority of political parties,” she said. “Human rights norms are skewed to the agendas of political parties,” which is why they tend to be overlooked.