Human Rights Developments

Defending Human Rights

The Role of the International Community

Defending Human Rights

The human rights community in Turkey, including, most prominently, the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT), the Human Rights Association (HRA), the Mazlum-Der and the Helsinki Citizens Assembly Initiative (HCAI), is one of the most active segments of civil society. While these groups enjoy credibility and legitimacy abroad and at home, their activities are closely scrutinized by the courts and security forces. The publications of these organizations and statements of their officials are the subject of criminal trials, branch offices are raided by police, and advocates are often arbitrarily detained. In February, a court acquitted HRA officials for the speeches they had made during “Human Rights Week” in December 1997. The court verdict overruled the prosecutor’s request to close the HRA. In July, however, a court sentenced HRA head Akin Birdal to one year of imprisonment for “inciting hatred” in a speech calling for a peaceful end to the Kurdish conflict. As of this writing, there were several other charges still pending against Mr. Birdal, all related to his writings and public speeches. Although the Diyarbakir branch of HRA remained closed by the emergency law government, the HRFT operated a center in the city.

Foreign human rights groups were generally able to travel to Turkey to conduct research and observe trials, but certain restrictions applied in the southeast. Journalists and human rights observers had only limited access to rural areas of southeastern Turkey. The week following Newroz celebrations, a group of foreign observers was not allowed to visit Tunceli province. The Ministry of Justice refused a request from Barbel Narnhammer, a German parliamentarian with the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and journalist Godfried Stein to visit journalist Hasan Ozgun, the former Diyarbakir representative of pro-Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Gundem , in prison. In April, the Turkish government agreed to allow the United Nations special rapporteur on torture to conduct an investigation, which was scheduled to take place in November. In 1997, the special rapporteur had published his annual report citing evidence of widespread patterns of abuse in detention and prisons.