Human Rights in Turkey Imperfect or non-existent?

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Human Rights in TurkeyImperfect or non-existent?

• PTPI Conference series Human rights in EE,
  Caucasus and Asia. Yana Popkostova
• April, 2007

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Overview Facts

• 1949 The Republic of Turkey was one of the first
  nations to ratify the Universal Declaration of
  Human Rights.
• 1954 European Convention on Human Rights
• 1987 European Convention for the Prevention of
  Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Punishment.

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Overview Reality

• In 2005 2302 applications lodged against the
  Republic of Turkey before the European Court of
  Human Rights for acute abuse of freedom of
  expression, gender equality, and disrespect of
  minorities.

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Human rights

• Individual Rights
• Right to life
• Gender equality
• Freedom of expression
• Freedom of the press
• Freedom of religion
• Disabled citizens

• Group rights
• Minority rights
• - religion
• - language
• - ethnicity

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Individual rights in Turkey

• Right to Life
• - capital punishment
• - use of lethal force
• - torture and ill treatment at police stations

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Individual rights in Turkey

• Gender Equality
• 1926 Turkish women are granted the rights to
  initiate divorce
• 1930s Turkey grants full suffrage rights to
  women
• 1985 Turkish women are granted the right to do
  abortion and the right to contraceptive medicine
  paid by the SS

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BUT

• Southeast Anatolia
• - domestic violence
• - forced marriages
• - honor killings

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Individual rights in Turkey

• Freedom of expression Freedom of the press
• "A person who publicly insults being a Turk, the
  Republic or the Turkish Grand National Assembly,
  shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term
  of six months to three years." Turkish penal
  code, art.301

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Individual rights in Turkey

• Freedom of religion
• Art.3 Turkish Constitution
• the Republic of Turkey is a secular state
  without an official religion

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BUT

• - Ban on religious symbols / head scarf, cross,
  etc./
• - Ban on religious education
• - Heavy subsidization only of mosques and Islam
  religious communities!

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Individual rights in Turkey

• Disabled citizens
• Complete abandonment
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vQ9lNUsLLC8c

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Group rights in Turkey

• Ethnic minorities
• According to the Article 66 of the Turkish
  Constitution, "everyone bound to the Turkish
  state through the bond of citizenship is a Turk".
  It considers that since all Turkish citizens have
  the same rights and benefits of citizenship,
  there is no such nomenclature as minority in
  Turkey, except for the three minorities
  recognized by the Treaty of Lausanne signed
  before the proclamation of the Republic Greek,
  Armenian and Jewish minorities.

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Group rights

• Kurdish minority
• - 1980s-1990s displacement of 3 mln. Kurdish
  citizens
• - up till 2003 prohibition of Kurdish language
  in official sites
• - no rehabilitation of the destroyed n the
  1990s Kurdish villages

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Where are we going?

• International criticism
• EU Accession negotiations fostering respect
  for human rights
• ECHR 2006 - issued approximately 200 judgments
  against Turkey for torture, unfair trial,
  violations of free expression, extrajudicial
  execution, and other violations.
• Amnesty international
• Human rights watch
• UN - great concern about the fact that the new
  legislative safeguards against torture and
  arbitrary detention introduced in 2005 did not
  apply to individuals held on suspicion of
  terrorism related crimes, creating in practice
  two criminal justice systems in Turkey.
• UN suicides among women

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Where are we going?...

• The government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan
  failed during 2006 to implement key reforms
  necessary to consolidate the human rights
  progress of the past years. Entrenched state
  forces, including the military, continued to
  resist reform. Illegal armed groups, as well as
  rogue elements of the security forces, conducted
  violent attacks that threaten the reform process.

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What the region needs?

• Human rights through peace and understanding!
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v6RVRaVYJh48

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• Thank you!