ECCAR European Coalition of Cities against Racism

With its approximately half a million population and central location in İstanbul with 25 km square area of land, the City of Kadıköy is the cultural and commercial center of the Asian side of the metropolitan city. Kadıköy has a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious community. Its demographic structure includes predominantly Turkish residents while there are Armenian, Greek (Rum) and Jewish minorities. Kadıköy is a peaceful city where all the groups live in a democratic atmosphere without any discrimination. Kadıköy has high education and socio-economic development level and higher rate of elderly population, which is about 19%.

In its Strategic Plan for 2020-2024, Kadıköy Municipality has adopted an integrated service model targeting to meet the varying needs of all groups with a special priority to children, women and the elderly. With its powerful and extensive health capacity as well as a wide range of social and cultural services, it provides most of the services free of charge to ensure the accessibility and to foster inclusiveness. Kadıköy Municipality implements effective social policies by establishing various social services and organizations, which ensure the participation of all inhabitants. It is very important for the Municipality to provide its services towards equity: ensure fair access to public services and work towards leaving no one behind through developing various services prioritizing especially the vulnerable groups.

Kadıköy Municipality in its Strategic Plan has adopted the goal “to be a city that respects the rights of life where all segments of the society are protected and their varying needs are satisfied with the perspective of social equality”. Following this goal, it aims to eliminate the disadvantages of the women and gender inequities and to prevent each segment of the society from exclusion and discrimination through awareness activities and trainings/workshops on social gender and equal access to opportunities in Kadıköy. It supports social and economic empowerment of women, carries out training activities to struggle with the gender discrimination, provides shelter for the women victims of violence and provides rights-based training activities as well as psychological and legal counseling services for women. These activities are arranged by the Social Equality Unit and Social Service Centers in partnership with NGOs. It is also crucial for Kadıköy to provide an environment safe for women and girls, protecting them from harassment and gender-based violence.

Kadıköy Municipality’s mission is to be a district, which respects all living creatures with providing an equal service for everyone to have better quality of life.