Women's organizations, environmental movements, and labor unions from Turkey and various countries around the world have issued a joint call ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP31. The "Call for a Purple, Green, and Public Transformation for Climate Justice" emphasizes that the climate crisis directly affects women's lives, working conditions, and social inequalities.
Facilitated by the Deniz Yıldızı Women's Solidarity Association, the call is supported by 93 organizations from Turkey and 41 women's, environmental, and labor organizations from geographies spanning from Africa to the Americas. The statement asserts that climate policies must be established on the basis of gender equality, public services, and labor rights.
We will not postpone our lives. We will not pay the price for crises we are not responsible for with our labor, our bodies, our lives, our future, and our dreams.
EMPHASIS ON PUBLIC TRANSFORMATION
The statement expresses that the climate crisis is not limited to disasters such as drought, fire, and floods; it is deepened by poverty, precarious work, male violence, and the care labor loaded onto women's shoulders. The text argues that the destruction of nature and the devaluation of women's labor are fueled by the same exploitative relationships.
The call demands an end to dependence on fossil fuels, the protection of ecological integrity, and that the costs of transformation not be placed on workers, women, and local communities. While opposing the continuation of existing forms of exploitation under the guise of "green transformation," it notes that climate policies must be prepared within a framework that strengthens social rights.
One of the topics highlighted by women's organizations is the socialization of care labor. The statement objects to the use of unpaid care labor to fill gaps in public services, stating that care must be treated as a public responsibility. It emphasizes that housing, water, food, health, education, transportation, and care services are fundamental rights.
Regarding demands for working life, it calls for ensuring women's access to equal pay, social security, and union rights. It states that the rights of female farmers over land, water, seeds, and production must be protected, and that local production knowledge, agroecological farming, and food sovereignty must be defended.
EQUAL PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES DEMANDED
The statement also draws attention to the relationship between the climate crisis and wars and militarist policies. It demands that public resources allocated to armament be used for care, health, education, social protection, and ecological restoration. It states that from pre-disaster stages to reconstruction processes, women's rights to safe housing, protection from violence, and access to public services must be upheld.
Equal participation of women in the processes of preparing, budgeting, implementing, and auditing climate and disaster policies was also among the core demands of the call. The text emphasizes that women should not be subjects whose opinions are merely consulted, but rather actors with direct decision-making authority.
Addressing members of parliament, governments, and local administrations, the statement calls out: "Fulfill your public responsibility. Together with women's organizations, transform laws, budgets, and policies on the basis of equality and ecological justice."
Signatories of the call in Turkey include the Women's Solidarity Foundation, the Women for Women's Human Rights - New Ways, the We Will Stop Femicide Platform, Kaos GL, KADAV, the Turkish Medical Association's Women Physicians and Women's Health Branch, as well as various union women's commissions and local women's platforms. International supporters include organizations such as Friends of the Earth International and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Germany.
News Source: 12punto
