Human Rights in Turkey - Essay Example

Human rights in Turkey (according to international law) Introduction The international human rights regime has facilitated several welcome advances inclusive of enhanced responsiveness and heightened accountability to safeguard against atrocities. The UN Charter on human rights fosters “fundamental freedoms” and established norms and principles that touch on almost all facets of life, whether economic, cultural, social, or political. The requisite equality of all human rights, now entrenched within the provisions of international human rights instruments, is especially evident when probing human rights violations centering on a broad range of human rights (Weissbrodt 3). Human rights situation within Turkey can be regarded to be more precarious that ever. The recent annual reports by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that rules on human rights contraventions within Europe has indicated that Turkey is by far the worst violator of human rights within the 47 signatory states of the ECHR. Some of the prominent violations that Turkey face include unlawful killings, extended trials, and limits on freedom of expression within Turkey being among the alleged human-rights contraventions denounced by major reports (Straw 103). The paper explores Human rights in Turkey within the broader scheme of the global human rights protection. The paper concludes that, although, Turkey has made considerable improvements with regard to human rights, especially rights centering on freedom of expression; however, Turkey has a long way to go to eradicate human rights violations. The use of violence by police on a large scale has played a big role in refusing the right to peaceful protest. The tenacity and frequency of human rights violations continues to be a concern for human rights groups. Discussion Turkey’s human rights record has for continued periods attracted a lot of inquiry both internally and externally. Turkey was sentenced to 33 million Euros in about 567 different cases in the period spanning between 1990 (when Turkey gained admission for individual applications to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)) and 2006. Most of the human rights abuses occurred within the South-East within the frame of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict. In 2007, there were about 2830 applications lodged against the Republic of Turkey at the ECHR, and consequently, the court handed down 331 judgments on the merits issued confirming 319 contraventions and 9 non-violations (European Commission 4). Turkey remains under the control of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as per Article 46 of the ECHR. The international human rights laws represent the body of international laws structured to foster and safeguard human rights at domestic, regional, and international levels. The international human rights law comprises of treaties agreements struck between states fashioned at binding legal effect between parties as per the norms in international law (White 71). The republic of Turkey has entered into diverse human rights commitments, some of which remain well elaborated in the Turkish Constitution. Part Two of the Turkish constitution guarantees “fundamental rights and freedoms” such as right to property, security of person, and right to life. Turkey has ratified several treaties including International Bill of Human Rights, Regional Conventions, Terrorism and Human Rights, Protocol 5-8 of the ECHR, Protocol 9-12 of the ECHR, Protection from Torture, III-Treatment and Disappearance, and Women’s Human Rights (European Commission) (Straw 104). Current situation and conflict in Turkey with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Turkey is home to a considerable Kurdish population comprising of 15% of Turkey’s 73 million people. Close to half of the Kurdish population lives within cities within the western Turkey. The Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK)/ Kurdish Workers’ Party (established in the late 1970s) has been waging a guerrilla war for Kurdish sovereignty or autonomy within southeastern Turkey since 1984. The European Court of Human Rights has in the past handed down critical decisions within a number of cases, dwelling on the Turkish security force’s violent handling of the Kurds. The Kurdish-Turkish conflict represents an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and the several Kurdish insurgent groups that root for an independent Kurdistan (autonomy), as well as enhanced political and cultural rights for the Kurds. Based on these motives, the PKK has been committing numerous assassinations, bombings, and sabotages within the past 40 years, which has led to listing of PKK as a terrorist organization by NATO, the U.S. and the European Union (Straw 104). To the present, close to 45,000 people has been killed as a result of the conflict from either side with an estimated 6,000 civilian casualties. Since its inception, PKK has engaged in armed clashes with the Turkish security forces. Since the summer of 2011, the conflict between the two sides has increasingly become violent as manifested by the resumption of large-scale hostilities. 2013 Protests in Turkey Protests have persisted in Turkey since 28th May 2013. The protests arose out of outrage after a vicious police eviction of a sit-in at Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park in a demonstration against the park’s demolition, and intentions to build at the park. Consequently, other protests and strikes took place across Turkey demonstrating a broad range of concerns, at the centre on which were issues centering on freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and the government’s infringement on Turkey’s secularism. The sit-in at Taksim Gezi Park resumed after police withdrew from Taksim Square on 1st June, and structured into an Occupy-like camp in which thousands of protesters stayed in camps. The Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has governed Turkey since 2002, delivered several speeches some of which may be broadly viewed as inflammatory and dismissive of the protesters. On 4th June, the deputy Prime Minister apologized to the protesters for the police brutality in quelling the riots at the start of the sit-ins, but pointed out that he would withhold apology for the police brutality that came after (Straw 104). Taksim Square was engulfed in chaos as riot police employed tear gas, stun guns, and water cannons in a bid to force thousands of protesters from the square. European Court of Human Rights judgments In regard to international human rights instruments, Turkey has ratified the Council of Europe’s Convention on safeguarding and combating human rights violations. During the reporting period, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) delivered judgments based on 160 applications that found that Turkey had contravened rights guaranteed by the ECHR. The number of fresh applications to the ECHR increased for the sixth consecutive year with new applications filed to the court since September 2011. Majority of the concerns centers on the right to a fair trial and safeguarding of property rights. In September 2012, close to 16.641 applications on Turkey were pending. Turkey has observed by the bulk of the rulings but has not entirely executed all the judgments (Anagnostou 23). Statistical data centering on the violation judgments by country ranging from the period 1950-2009 highlights that Turkey tops the chart accounting for 18.81% of all violation judgments, followed by Italy 16.57%, and Russia 6.34%. In the period ranging 1959-2009, about 2,295 judgments entered for Turkey, and the court deemed a mere 46 cases to have no violations. In 2010, Turkey had the second highest number of complaints lodged against the Republic of Turkey with 11% of the total 119,300 applications. The court established contravention of Article 6, the right to a fair trial within a reasonable time in over 50% of the judgments (Human Rights Watch 50). In recent rulings, the court has established that, in most cases, Turkey was in contravention of the right to a fair trial, whereby there has been lengthy trials, excessive delays within Turkish courts (European Commission 18). In 2008, the Republic of Turkey ranked second after Russia in terms of countries manifesting the largest cases of human rights violation open at the European Court of Human Rights with about 9,000 cases pending before the court as of August 2008. In 2011, the European Court of Human Rights issued about 159 judgments that registered violations on the part of the Republic of Turkey, the most of any country, in which Russia came second at 121 judgments. Although, there has been hardly any decisions centering on the Article14 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ban of discrimination), the bulk of the judgments touch on Article 2 (right to life), and Article 3 of the convention that feature on the ban of torture adopted on procedural grounds, instead of testifying an engagement with State agencies. The European Court of Human Rights has heard about nine cases touching on Turkey’s political party bans by the Constitution Court of Turkey (Anagnostou 23). In over 90% of the cases, the ECHR ruled against the decision to ban, by ruling that Turkey contravened Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention (Freedom of expression and freedom of association). The decision on the Welfare Party appears inconsistent relative to the court’s other decisions. The right to life In addition to the death penalty, the right to life has overtime been threatened by numerous instances of extrajudicial executions (mainly political) by unidentified perpetrators, as well as rising cases of “disappearances.” Extra-judicial executions Amnesty International released its pioneer report on extra-judicial executions within Turkey. In the subsequent years, the problem became acute as mounting cases of killings of prisoners arose (such as the killing of ten prisoners in a prison in Ankara on 26 September 1999). In 2008, the human rights organization reported 25 extra-judicial killings in Turkey in 2008. Unsolved Killings Turkey has been experiencing rising cases of mass violations of human rights largely recorded within Kurdish-populated southeast and eastern region of Turkey, within the 1990s, which took the form of imposed disappearances and killings perpetrated by unknown assailants that Turkey indicated no willingness to solve. The Human Rights Association in 2009 reported that by the end of 2008, close to 2949 people had been murdered by unknown assailants and close to 2,308 people had become victims of extra-judicial executions. “Disappearances” The military campaign against Kurdish secessionists within Eastern links to multiple enforced disappearances that also yielded to judgments on the same from the ECHR. Turkey stands accused of a handful of a handful of cases of “disappearances” within Turkey in the 1980s, as well as a large number of deaths in custody. The bulk of the disappearances related to persons of Kurdish ethnic origin and reported within the provinces of Siirt and Diyarbakir, in which armed and security forces were combating the PKK at a period in which a state of emergency was in effect. Torture Widespread and systematic utilization of torture continue to be reported by various bodies such as Amnesty International subsequent to the 1971 Turkish coup d’etat. Since 2002, several cases on systematic torture have been reported. Since 2005, incidents on torture and cruel treatment has been on the rise in which there is an absence of prompt, impartial, and independent investigation into claims relating to human rights contraventions by members of the security forces (Human Rights Watch 5). Turkey’s Human rights record Experts and human rights groups and a large section of Turks point out that, Erdogan’s democratically elected government, lags behind on matters relating to human rights, especially guaranteeing freedom of expression enjoyed by opponents. The Human Rights Watch 2013 report on Turkey notes that prosecutors and courts within Turkey cite terrorism laws in prosecuting and prolonging incarceration of thousands of Kurdish political activists, students, human rights defenders, trade unionists, and journalists (Human Rights Watch 4). As a result, Turkish journalists remain scared of writing anything critical of the government, and media companies sometimes may be slapped with significant tax fines based on their coverage of "uncomfortable topics." The government has sought efforts to guarantee compliance with legal safeguards centering on the prevention of torture and ill-treatment. Nevertheless, excessive use of force during arrest and outside official detention places, as well as within official places such as detention and prisons persist to be a matter of concern. Turkey has ratified the Optimal Protocol featuring the Convention Against Torture, but is yet to establish a National Preventive Mechanism as per the requirements of the Optional Protocol. With regard to freedom of expression, several journalists were released pending trial subsequent to excessively long periods spent during the pre-trial detention (Anagnostou 182). The application of the Articles 6 and 7 of the Anti-terror Law coupled with Articles 220 and 314 of the Turkish Criminal Code may be linked to abuses, whereby high-level government and state officials increasingly turn publicly against the press and launch court cases (Anagnostou 183). Independent monitoring bodies are yet to be established in line with the Optional Protocol as per the Convention against torture. Turkey’s parliament adopted a law paving the way for the establishment of the Turkish National Human Rights Institution; nevertheless, the law does not fully conform to the UN Paris principles, especially those relating to the independence of the proposed body. Furthermore, the text was not discussed among the stakeholders and does not adequately mirror the concerns and proposals of national and international experts (White 72). The 2013 protests have grown into the biggest and most violent anti-government demonstration recorded in years as Turks opposed what they described as Prime Minister Tayyyip Erdogan’s authoritarian style. The protests were interpreted as an expression of concern for sizeable sections of Turkish society over topical decisions, and legislative acts representing attempts to enforce the government’s preferred lifestyle on citizens, and use political rhetoric marginalization and discriminating against diverse groups within society based on their lifestyles and beliefs. The European Parliament resolution on the situation in Turkey (2013/2664 (RSP) cited the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union in probing the use of excessive violence-with the sanction of the political authorities- subsequent to the legal and peaceful reaction on Friday, 31 May 2013 by the people of Istanbul to the construction project in Istanbul Taksim Gezi Park (the projected construction of the Taksim military barracks and a shopping centre). The report noted that excessive violent intervention of the police in Istanbul and other cities violated the right to peacefully assemble and protest, given that the violent crackdown by the police led to the death of about three people and thousands injured (European Parliament par.2). Although, tear-gas was used extensively against the protesters, majority of the tear-gas canisters were fired directly towards protesters yielding to serious injuries, which is itself a contravention of the principles of necessity and proportionality; whereas, in some instances, the authorities prevented the injured protesters from gaining access to medical treatment. The harsh condemnation by the Turkish Government and Prime Minister Erdogan was counter-productive as it only served to fuel the protests (European Parliament par.2). Article 34 of the Turkish constitution provides the right to hold peaceful, unarmed meetings and demonstrations, Article 26 of the Turkish Constitution provides freedom of expression, and Articles 27 and 28 of the Turkish Constitution provides for freedom of expression and “unobstructed dissemination of thought.” Although, Turkey has ratified majority of international treaties relating to women’s human rights, inclusive on the convention on the eradication of all modes of discrimination against women (Usul 88). Nevertheless, violence against women, forced marriage, polygamy, or “honor crimes” remains on the agenda despite the condemnation from the European Parliament, especially after resolution (Bozkurt report). For instance, there exist few women’s shelters in Turkey (a country with 800,000) meaning that girls have minimal access to school teaching every year, as well as political and economic participation of women (White 74). Turkey has made considerable improvements with regard to human rights, especially rights centering on freedom of expression; however, Turkey has a long journey towards elimination of human rights violations. There Turkish government has launched various programs such as zero-tolerance for torture designed to promote suspect and defendant rights and custody conditions. Such programs have largely centered on lifting legal barriers based on free expression and guided by the principles of democracy, pluralism, and freedom. In most cases, courts convict with inadequate consideration for the obligation to safeguard freedom of expression (Usul 88). The government of the Republic of Turkey has not yet undertaken a comprehensive review of all present laws that limit freedom of expression despite the introduction of a draft reform package in late 2012. The third judicial reform from July 2012 pursues an ending to short-term outlaws of journals and newspapers, which the European Court of Human Rights has condemned as censorship (European Commission 19). The law shelves investigations, convictions, and prosecutions of speech-connected offences that carry a maximum sentence of 5 years. Enhancing the human rights situation within Turkey is of critical significance in view of the accession negotiation of Turkey into the EU. In its progress report for Turkey, the European parliament noted that, disapprovingly, that alarming incidents on human rights violations in Turkey still features within Turkey despite the broad range of efforts directed at ending the violations. These incidents encompassed politically motivated persecution, unfair trials, assault and murder, torture, and ill-treatment by state agencies (Anagnostou 184). The freedom of expression and media pluralism are the centre of European values and a truthfully democratic, free, and pluralist society demands true freedom of expression, whereby freedom of expression is applicable to information or ideas that can be constructively received or regarded as inoffensive, but also those that offend, jolt or disturb the state, or any section of the population (Steiner 4). Conclusion Human rights in Turkey are safeguarded by a series of international law treaties that take precedence over domestic legislation as per Article 90 of the constitution. The issue of human rights is of significance for Turkey’s negotiations with the European Union (EU). Acute human rights issues that feature in Turkey’s case entail the status of Kurds within Turkey. The Kurdish-Turkish conflict has yielded to numerous human rights violations over the years. Presently, there is an ongoing debate within Turkey based on guaranteeing fundamental human rights such as freedom of expression, right to life, and protection against torture, as well as freedoms of assembly, religion, and association. Much of the promised constitutional and other legal reforms have not yet taken place. Moreover, thousand of the prosecutions presented under the flawed anti-terrorism have largely failed to pass fair trial standards. The violent crackdown by the police to quell the protests through the use of tear gas against peaceful protesters has been accompanied by massive violation of human rights. The use of violence by police on a large scale appears to be fashioned to refuse the right to peaceful protest and encourage others from engaging in peaceful protests. Tear-gassing of the protesters assembled in Taksim Square is unlikely to end the crisis, and if Turkey is to be considered as a rights-respecting country, the police brutality has to end, and the government should engage the protesters. Works Cited Anagnostou, Dia, and Evangelia Psychogiopoulou. The European Court of Human Rights and the Rights of Marginalised Individuals and Minorities in National Context. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2010. Print. Anagnostou, Dia. European Court of Human Rights: Domestic Implementation, Legal Mobilization. S.l.: Edinburgh Univ Press, 2013. Print. European Commission. Turkey 2012 Progress Report, 2012. Web. 14 June. 2013. http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2012/package/tr_rapport_2012_en.pdf European Parliament. Motion for a resolution (2013/2664 (RSP), 2013. Web. 14 June. 2013. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=MOTION&reference=B7-2013-0307&format=XML&language=EN Human Rights Watch. 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