| | |
|
| |
|
|
Turkey “We Need a Law for Liberation” Gender, Sexuality, and Human Rights in a Changing Turkey
HRW Index No.: 1-56432-316-1 May 22, 2008 Also available in 
Download PDF, 532 KB, 127 pgs Purchase online Download E-Book “Still critical” Prospects in 2005 for Internally Displaced Kurds in Turkey This 37-page report details how the Turkish government has failed to implement measures for IDPs the United Nations recommended nearly three years ago. Since the European Union confirmed Turkey’s membership candidacy in December, the Turkish government appears to have shelved plans to enact those measures. HRW Index No.: D1702 March 7, 2005 Download PDF, 342 KB, 38 pgs Purchase online Empty Promises Diplomatic Assurances No Safeguard Against Torture Individuals suspected of terrorism should never be returned to a country where they risk torture and ill-treatment. Promises of fair treatment by states with well-known records of torture are inherently unreliable, and governments that justify returns through such promises, known as “diplomatic assurances,” are violating the absolute prohibition against torture and eroding a fundamental principle of international law. The death penalty, however reprehensible, is legal and usually carried out publicly. But torture is illegal and practiced in secret. Governments routinely lie about whether they’re torturing people or not, and in some situations they may not even have adequate control to guarantee security. This 39-page report documents cases where governments returned or considered returning suspects on the basis of such formal guarantees, and raises concern that in some cases, those returned were, in fact, tortured or ill-treated. HRW Index No.: D1604 April 15, 2004 Download PDF, 360 KB, 39 pgs Purchase online Displaced and Disregarded Turkey's Failing Village Return Program The Turkish government, security forces and paramilitaries are obstructing the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced villagers to their homes in the formerly war-torn southeast. This 78-page report documents the plight of mainly Kurdish villagers forced to flee their villages in southeastern Turkey during the 15-year conflict waged between the illegal, armed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) and Turkish government forces. Estimates of the number of displaced people range from 380,000 to 1,000,000, most of whom were forced out of their homes by Turkish security forces and paramilitary village guards determined to deprive the PKK of access to food, shelter and recruits. Human Rights Watch interviewed dozens of displaced villagers who longed to return home and escape cramped and impoverished lives in unfamiliar urban surroundings. But although active hostilities ceased in 1999, it appears that no more than ten percent have ventured home. Human Rights Watch identified a range of factors blocking return, from inadequate government assistance to continued violence by Turkish security forces and their paramilitaries. Human Rights Watch called on the Turkish government to engage with relevant international and nongovernmental organizations to develop and finance a new comprehensive return plan in line with international standards. HRW Index No.: D1407 October 30, 2002 Download PDF Purchase online Turkey: Child Soldiers Global Report 2001 From the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers There are no indications of under-18s in government armed forces. The opposition PKK is known to recruit and deploy children under 18 years of age. In 1998, 3,000 children were said to be part of the PKK forces. There are reports of forced recruitment in Western Europe and Armenia. June 12, 2001 Small Group Isolation in F-type Prisons and the Violent Transfers of Prisoners to Sincan, Kandira, and Edirne Prisons on December 19, 2000 On December 19, 2000, thirty prisoners and two gendarmes were killed when some ten thousand armed soldiers went into twenty Turkish prisons to break up a nonviolent protest by inmates and transfer them to the newly constructed F-type prisons. Accounts received by Human Rights Watch from released prisoners and prisoners' relatives suggest that disproportionate force may have been used during the operation, and that in some cases prisoners may have been deliberately killed. Information from the same sources, corroborated by medical evidence, indicates that hundreds of prisoners were ill-treated and tortured during and after the transfer to the new prisons. April 5, 2001 Purchase online Turkey: Human Rights and the European Union Accession Partnership At its summit in Helsinki in December 1999, the European Union (E.U.) recognized Turkey as a candidate for membership in the union, subject to the understanding that actual negotiations for membership will not commence until Turkey meets the political criteria for E.U. membership established in Copenhagen in 1993. Once adopted by the Commission and the E.U. Council of Ministers in late 2000, the Accession Partnership document, which will also include economic and institutional requirements, will become the E.U.'s formal list of tasks that Turkey must complete in order to accede to the union. Turkey will then produce a national program for accession that mirrors the Accession Partnership, and progress will be monitored by means of the annual 'Regular Report from the European Commission on progress towards accession' on the basis of the Copenhagen criteria, as is done for all applicant states. Turkey's history of gross and widespread human rights violations has been thoroughly documented by non-governmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch, and by international governmental organizations including the United Nations (U.N.) and the Council of Europe. As a consequence of Turkey's persistent failure to follow the recommendations of such bodies, serious violations persist today. HRW Index No.: D1210 September 1, 2000 Purchase online Turkey: Landmine Monitor Report 2000 Key developments since March 1999: In December 1999, Turkey reported that a military directive banning the use of AP mines on Turkish territory has been in place since January 1998. In May and December 1999 Turkey stated its intention to join the Mine Ban Treaty in the near future. In March 1999 Turkey signed an agreement with Bulgaria to demine and prohibit future use of mines on their common border. Turkey reported on similar negotiations with Georgia and Azerbaijan, and a similar proposal to Greece. Through the Stability Pact of South Eastern Europe Turkey is proposing a region-wide agreement to clear common borders. The PKK rebel forces apparently continue to use AP mines in Turkey and Northern Iraq. August 1, 2000 Turkey: Violations of Free Expression in Turkey This report examines the state of free expression in Turkey. It focuses largely on the print andbroadcast media, and to a lesser extent on freedom of speech in politics. The report deals with theperiod from 1995 to the present; when necessary, however, earlier periods are also explored.Given the plethora and ideological breadth of the media and of political parties in Turkey, thisstudy cannot hope to deal with each and every newspaper, author, or political group. Rather, ituses representative cases to highlight violations of the internationally-protected right to freeexpression. The press in Turkey—in the vernacular of psychiatry—suffers from multiplepersonality disorder. When reporting on the vast majority of issues, such as domestic partypolitics or the economy, the media today is lively and unrestricted—indeed often sensational.Nearly all points of view are expressed, from radical Islamist to Kurdish-nationalist anddyed-in-the-wool Kemalist. The boundaries of criticism are nearly limitless when reporting onmost issues. Such freedom, however, ends at the border of a number of sensitive topics.Alongside the arena of free discussion there is a danger zone where many who criticize acceptedstate policy face possible state persecution. Risky areas include the role of Islam in politics andsociety, Turkey's ethnic Kurdish minority and the conflict in southeastern Turkey, the nature ofthe state, and the proper role of the military. HRW Index No.: ISBN 1-56432-226-2 April 1, 1999 Purchase online Torture and Mistreatment in Pre-Trial Detention by Anti-Terror Police This report documents a pattern of torture—according to internationally recognized definitions of the term—and mistreatment of security detainees by the Anti-Terror Branch (Teror 'le Mucadele Subesi) of the Security Directorate of Turkey’s Ministry of the Interior. While criminal suspects also face the prospect of torture and maltreatment at the hands of the regular police, Turkey’s anti-terror police have become infamous both within the country and outside of Turkey for the widespread use of such practices against detainees accused of political crimes, both violent and non-violent. The Anti-Terror Branch deals with offenses that fall under the 1991 Anti-Terror Law and/or under the jurisdiction of state security courts; the term “security detainee” is used for individuals held for any period of time in the preceding two circumstances. International bodies have condemned this force, as well as the practice of torture in Turkey. The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) did so in a December 1992 “Public Statement.” Four years later, in another “Public Statement,” the CPT stated that the maltreatment of seven suspects at the Anti-Terror Branch of the Istanbul Police headquarters, “must rank among the most flagrant examples of torture encountered by CPT delegations in Turkey.” In November 1993, the United Nations Committee Against Torture even went so far as to warn that “certain departments” within the Interior Ministry were becoming a “State within a State.” March 1, 1997 Purchase online Turkey’s Failed Policy to Aid the Forcibly Displaced in the Southeast Some 2,685 villages and hamlets in Turkey’s southeastern provinces have been completely or partially depopulated since fighting broke out in the region in August 1984 between government forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an armed group which until recently had the avowed goal of an independent Kurdish state. Although there has been some migration for economic reasons, most of the depopulation has been the result of a government counterinsurgency campaign intended to deprive the PKK of logistical support. The PKK has also targeted state-sponsored village civil militia settlements, forcing some inhabitants to flee. Estimates of the number of individuals displaced range from 275,000 to two million. HRW Index No.: D809 June 1, 1996 Violations of the Right of Petition to the European Commission of Human Rights In 1954 Turkey signed the 1953 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Since that time, Turkish citizens who believe that the state has violated their rights guaranteed under the Convention and who have not been able to find domestic legal redress can bring suit against their own government under Article 25. Since 1991, at least 778 Turkish citizens have done so. Unfortunately, some, especially those living in the region of southeastern Turkey under emergency rule because of armed conflict, report that they have suffered intimidation and maltreatment because of the very exercise of this right. April 1, 1996 Weapons Transfers and Violations of the Laws of War in Turkey Since 1984, the government of Turkey has waged an increasingly bitter war with insurgents of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). To date, the toll is estimated at over 19,000 deaths, including some 2,000 death-squad killings of suspected PKK sympathizers, two million internally displaced, and more than 2,200 villages destroyed mostly by Turkish security forces. In an effort to root out PKK fighters and sympathizers from southeast Turkey, the government has adopted increasingly brutal counterinsurgency measures, in clear violation of international law. The PKK, for its part, has also systematically engaged in violations such as summary executions and indiscriminate fire. This report documents the Turkish security forces’ violations of human rights, and their reliance on U.S. and NATO-supplied weapons in doing so. Drawing on investigations of some 30 incidents that occurred between 1992 and 1995, the report links specific weapons systems to individual incidents of Turkish violations. Supplemented by interviews with former Turkish soldiers, U.S. officials and defense experts, the report concludes that U.S. weapons, as well as those supplied by other NATO members, are regularly used. HRW Index No.: ISBN 1-56432-161-4 November 1, 1995 U.S. Cluster Bombs for Turkey? We issued this report upon learning of a tense debate within the U.S. State and Defense Departments over whether to allow the export to Turkey of the most advanced and deadly cluster bomb in the U.S. arsenal, the CBU-87. Those who oppose the sale based on Turkey’s appalling human rights record are squared off against those who fear damage to the “strategic relationship” if the sale is denied. The CBU-87’s “combined effect” is its ability to be used both as an antitank and antipersonnel weapon. The CBU-87 could be used in Turkey’s counterinsurgency war with Kurdish rebels, with dire consequences for the civilian population, as the Turkish government has a well-documented record of contempt for civilian life during military operations. HRW Index No.: D619 December 1, 1994 Forced Displacement of Ethnic Kurds from Southeastern Turkey August 1994 marked the tenth anniversary of the bloody conflict in largely Kurdish southeast Turkey between the Turkish government and the separatist Kurdistan Worker’s Party guerrilla movement. What began in 1984 with isolated PKK attacks in rural southeastern Turkey has grown into a conflict that has consumed an estimated 13,000 lives, with over half the losses coming in the past year or so. Both Turkish security forces and PKK fighters are guilty of human rights abuses. Security forces operating in the southeast often make little distinction between civilians and PKK members, and the PKK has continued its practice of brutally punishing any cooperation with state authorities. HRW Index No.: D612 October 1, 1994 A Matter of Power State Control of Women’s Virginity in Turkey An investigation of the prevalence of forcible virginity control exams and the role of the government in conducting or tolerating such exams, this report cites several separate incidents in the spring of 1992 when young females committed suicide after authorities ordered them to submit to examinations of their hymens. June 1, 1994 Download PDF, 255 KB, 36 pgs Twenty-One Deaths in Detention in 1993 Twenty-one people died in suspicious circumstances while in police custody in 1993. These deaths took place in police or gendarmarie stations throughout Turkey during the interrogation phase of investigations. They follow on the deaths of at least 17 people who died while under interrogation in police custody in 1992. This makes a horrifying total of 38 deaths in detention under the coalition governments of former Prime Minister (now President) Demirel and current Prime Minister Ciller. HRW Index No.: D602 January 1, 1994 Threats to Press Freedom A Report Prepared for the Free Media Seminar Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe The Free Media Seminar of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe is taking place at a critical time. First, because developments throughout the region suggest that protection for media freedoms fall well short of international standards. Second, because there are disturbing signs of erosion for universal free expression protections on the part of international and continental bodies that should be insisting on bedrock protections for freedom of the press. Helsinki Watch, which since 1978 has monitored the state of human rights in many of the nations that signed the Helsinki Final Act, has in recent months published reports or conducted investigations in the countries listed above. We summarize our findings in the sections that follow. We do not claim that this is a comprehensive or exhaustive listing of curbs on media freedom in CSCE countries, or even in the countries we have included in this report. November 1, 1993 Download PDF, 275 KB, 39 pgs Printer friendly version Free Expression in Turkey Killings, Convictions, Confiscations Under the anti-terror law, which was introduced in 1991, many left-wing and pro-Kurdish journalists, writers and publishers continue to be tried, and many go on to be sentenced to prison terms and fines. Penal Code provisions that make it a crime to insult Ataturk, secularity, Islam, the security forces and the president continue to be used to restrict free expression. HRW Index No.: D517 August 1, 1993 Kurds of Turkey Killings, Disappearances and Torture This report describes some of the events that have taken place since Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel’s coalition government took office in November 1991 and their effects on the Turkish Kurds in southeast Turkey. While the law outlawing the speaking of Kurdish on the streets was repealed, it is still illegal to speak Kurdish in court, in official settings, or at public meetings, and most of the cultural prohibitions remain in effect. Also, the PKK’s guerrilla war continues unabated and appears to have far more support among Kurds than it did in 1988. HRW Index No.: 0960 March 1, 1993 |
 
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Contribute to Human Rights Watch
Home | About Us | News Releases | Publications | Info by Country | Global Issues | Campaigns | Community | Store | Film Festival | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | Press Contacts | Privacy Policy © Copyright 2006, Human Rights Watch 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor New York, NY 10118-3299 USA |
