The report is available in English at the following links:
www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/obsrapporttr05062012eng.pdf
http://www.omct.org/files/2012/06/21816/obs_mission_report_turkey_hd.pdf
Raporun Türkçe’sine alttaki linkten ulaşılabilir:
Despite major reforms and progresses over the past decade, in today's Turkey, those who speak out on “sensitive” human rights issues remain the target of an intense criminalisation. “Sensitive” issues include promoting the right to alternative identities (ethnic and religious minorities’ rights, particularly the Kurdish issue, and sexual minorities), and criticising the State and its institutions (the functioning of the institutions, including the independence of the judiciary and the impunity of the State and the army for human rights violations). Key categories of civil society active in the defence of human rights are affected by this policy: members of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) but also lawyers, trade unionists, journalists, intellectuals and academics, writers, advocates of the right to conscientious objection and family members of victims of serious violations, etc.
Criminalisation
is made possible by the existence of repressive administrative practices and
criminal provisions left unchanged by reform packages, notably in the Turkish
Penal Code (TPC) and the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL). Furthermore, law-enforcement
bodies, prosecutors and judges, long-accustomed to limiting freedoms and rights, continue to interpret and
apply the law in a repressive manner. The ATL has been increasingly used
against human rights defenders over the past years, which entails the
application of a set of rules less protective of the defence’s rights. The
vague definition of terrorism and its interpretation by the courts have made it
possible for prosecutors and judges to consider that the mere criticism of the
authorities’ human rights record may in itself be construed as a form of
support to terrorist groups or evidence of membership in terrorist groups.
Prolonged pre-trial detention is used very frequently and may be seen as a form
of punishment per se, independently of the outcome of the trial.
“A comprehensive overhaul of the Turkish legal system is today more than needed to improve the environment of operation of human rights defenders. Justice is used as a weapon to repress, intimidate and punish human rights defenders, through criminal proceedings that blatantly violate the right to a fair trial. Today such authoritarian practices have to come to an end”, says Ms. Souhayr Belhassen, FIDH President.
At the beginning of 2012, 105 journalists,
44 lawyers, at least 16 members of human rights organisations and 41 trade
unionists were in jail, mostly under terrorism charges. The emblematic cases of
sociologist Pınar
Selek prosecuted
since 1998, lawyer Muharrem Erbey, detained since December 2009, and publisher Ragıp Zarakolu, detained during more than five
months, are only the tip of this deplorable situation.
“We fear that these continuous proceedings may lead the civil society to develop a certain degree of self-censorship, precisely at a time when a strong and critical human rights community that operate under the protective reach of the law is needed", added Mr. Gerald Staberock, Secretary General of OMCT.
The Observatory respectfully urges the authorities of Turkey to pay the utmost attention to its recommendations, take the necessary steps to create and maintain a safe and conducive environment for human rights defenders to operate freely and efficiently in the country, including by fully recognising the legitimate role played by human rights organisations, releasing all human rights defenders detained for exercising human rights activities, ending judicial harassment and fully investigating abuses faced by human rights defenders.
For further information, please contact:
• FIDH: Karine Appy / Arthur Manet: + 33 1 43 55 25 18
• OMCT: Isabelle Scherer: + 41 22 809 49 39
Guilty until proven innocent: mission report
56 pages / 8.16 MB
Guilty until proven innocent- Arabic version
2 pages / 104 KB
İnsan Hakları Savunucuları Masum Oldukları Kanıtlanıncaya Kadar Suçlu
48 pages / 644 KB
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