Reports

This briefing paper examines the implications of military interference for human rights, as well as a number of other current human rights concerns, including restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, the harassment and prosecution of Kurdish political parties, ongoing problems of impunity for state officials, and po

In this 40-page briefing paper, Human Rights Watch analyzes how the Turkish government is failing to provide fair compensation for hundreds of thousands of mainly Kurdish villagers displaced by the military’s brutal counterinsurgency campaigns in the southeast.

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.

At its December 16-17 summit in Brussels, the European Council is expected to decide whether or not to open negotiations for Turkey’s full membership of the European Union.

Turkish state forces violently and illegally displaced upwards of 380,000 Kurdish villagers in the 1990s during a conflict with the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey.

On October 6 the European Commission will publish its 2004 Regular Report on Turkey’s progress toward European Union membership. This document provides a background, highlights key issues to look for in the report, and ends with an assessment of the progress of reforms.

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.

Turkey’s public universities are still emerging from more than twenty years of military influence and centralized ideological and operational controls.

Individuals suspected of terrorism should never be returned to a country where they risk torture and ill-treatment.

Human Rights Watch, in cooperation with the Association for Inidvidual Rights in Europe (AIRE), was granted leave to intervene in the controversial case of Mamatkulov and Askarov v. Turkey before the European Court of Human Rights.

This briefing paper describes the current humanitarian and security conditions faced by hundreds of thousands of Iraqi residents, refugees, and displaced persons, and examines priority concerns and potential humanitarian consequences in the event of war.

The process of Turkey's accession to the E.U. has, since 1999, emerged as the most important catalyst of reform in Turkey. The E.U.'s progress report for 2001 made it clear that Turkey was lagging behind in its efforts to meet the E.U.

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.

Turkey's parliamentary elections scheduled for November 3 will present an important test for the country, just one month before the European Union's Copenhagen summit, at which the E.U. is expected to give Turkey a signal about its prospects for membership in the Union.

The European Union's (E.U.) Regular Report on Turkey, scheduled for release October 9, will provide the E.U.'s assessment of recent reforms in Turkey and an early indication of whether the E.U. intends to move forward on Turkey's membership application at its December summit.