Human Rights Watch Action on Turkish Prison Crisis

Human Rights Watch welcomes the Turkish parliament's decision to amend Article 16 of the Anti-Terror Law, so as to remove legal provisions that prohibited out-of-cell activities. This amendment signals the last legal obstacle to lifting small-group isolation in the F-type and other prisons, including Kartal Special-Type Prison. We remain concerned, however, that the amendment to Article 16 contains several conditions that, if improperly implemented, could result in the continuation of the isolation regime in Turkey's F-type prisons.