A new Human Rights Watch report outlines the most critical reforms needed in Turkey, and urges that they be included in the plan for Turkey's accession to the E.U.
The international monitoring group's report comes as the European Commission is putting the final touches on the E.U.'s Accession Partnership document for Turkey, which is due for final adoption by the Commission in November. This document will set out the steps Turkey must take to meet the E.U.'s membership criteria, which include "stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and respect for and protection of minorities."
"This is not an exhaustive list of every reform needed in Turkey, but rather a practical baseline that should be addressed through the accession process to tackle the most persistent abuses," said Jonathan Sugden, Turkey researcher for Human Rights Watch.
The issues discussed in the Human Rights Watch report include widespread and persistent torture, violations of free expression and minority language rights, continued instability in the southeastern part of the country, restrictions on the wearing of head scarves, and inadequate protection for refugees.
The rights group urged the E.U. to develop a detailed accession plan for Turkey, specifying unambiguous and measurable benchmarks. The Turkish government has a history of avoiding problems and placating critics with half-measures and empty gestures. In September 1999 the temporary release of Akin Birdal, imprisoned for a speech he gave while president of the Turkish Human Rights Association, and the partial amnesty of journalists in the same month, were clear maneuvers to avoid official embarrassment at the E.U. Helsinki Summit in December. Akin Birdal was rearrested in early 2000 and now sits in Ankara Central Closed Prison, while prosecutions of journalists continue. Human Rights Watch called for a detailed accession plan so that in the future the E.U. need not give credit for such insubstantial or ephemeral measures.
Human Rights Watch also sees clear advantages for Turkey in a detailed program. Suspicions have been voiced in Turkey that E.U. member states use human rights as a pretext for resisting Turkey's membership, while the "real" problem is Turkey's sometimes strained relations with E.U. member Greece, or xenophobic fears about including a populous, predominantly Muslim country in a border-free Europe. A clearly enumerated and transparent process can give the Turkish people confidence that the human rights goalposts will not be moving perpetually out of reach.
The Human Rights Watch report identifies needed reforms and evaluates the Turkish government's current preparedness to tackle them. "There is clearly a gap between how the E.U. and the Turkish government perceive the scale of the problem," Sugden explained. "What the Turkish government describes as 'some omissions', the European Commission has characterized as 'serious shortcomings in terms of human rights and protection of minorities.'"
The Turkish government has signaled its plans for meeting the E.U. membership criteria in the form of two policy documents issued earlier this year, the "Report on the Political Criteria of the Special Committee on Turkey-E.U. Relations" and the "Calendar for Democracy, the Rule of Law and Human Rights."
Human Rights Watch welcomes the many praiseworthy objectives contained in the Turkish government's Report and Calendar, including abolishing the death penalty and incommunicado detention, and redrafting laws in order to ensure freedom of expression. However omissions include the full and free use of minority languages and other important safeguards against torture. The thousands of women excluded from education because they wear the Islamic headscarf and the precarious situation of asylum seekers are also ignored.
Human Rights Watch also criticized the Turkish government's lack of urgency. Reforms that are decades overdue are only scheduled for submission to parliament in eighteen months' or two years' time.
"It is extremely disheartening to find that, according to the government's calendar, we have to wait until the end of 2001 for even draft measures to appear," commented Sugden. "Prisoners held for expressing non-violent opinions should not be left to languish in jail, held captive to Turkey's leisurely timetable for E.U. accession. The Turkish government has wasted a good deal of its first year in the candidacy process. The time for these reforms is now."
