Eradicating Torture in Turkey's Police Stations: Analysis and Recommendations

Turkey has made significant progress in reducing torture and other ill-treatment by the security services through successive legislative reforms since 1997. There are continuing problems implementing these laws, however, as the Turkish government itself concedes. The key to ensuring security forces’ compliance with safeguards against torture and ill-treatment is to intensify internal supervision, sharpen the state’s response to individual allegations of torture and other mistreatment, and permit independent monitoring of places of detention. This paper suggests actions that could be taken within weeks. If fully adopted, such measures could bring Turkey close to eliminating torture in police custody.