Justice still denied

“Torture, maltreatment and killings in Turkey continue to be marked by continuing impunity for the security forces”, charges Amnesty International in a report issued on 5 July. The report denounces the fact that “investigations and judicial proceedings on cases of grave violations of human rights perpetrated by the police and by the gendarmerie are defective and vitiated by contradictory decisions by magistrates and judges. Consequently, justice for the victims of violations suffers delays or is denied“. THE JUSTICE SYSTEM NEEDS TO BE REFORMED. “The penal justice system needs reforms. It must place the protection of citizens’ human rights above the safeguard of those that are perceived as the interests of the institutions and state employees”, said NICOLA DUCKWORTH , who heads the Europe/Central Asia Programme of Amnesty International. According to the human rights watchdog, the factors that contribute to the culture of impunity include “administrative delays, defective judicial procedures and forms of intimidation against human rights activists and journalists”. The report also points out the lack of an independent organization that could investigate human rights abuses in an impartial and effective way and the absence of a central archive of violations committed by the security forces. TORTURE AND CONTROVERSIAL LAWS. Amnesty International underlines some specific problems: torture and maltreatment during and at the end of demonstrations, in prison and during the transfer of detainees; trials in which statements and confessions extorted with the use of torture are not only admitted, “but constitute a central element of proof of guilt”; the refusal of courts to recognize independent medical examinations in the case of maltreatment and torture, while they usually take into consideration “only the findings of the state institute of forensic medicine, an organ under the control of the Ministry of Justice”; the introduction of a controversial provision, during the reform of the anti-terrorism law, which does not explicitly state that the use of force ought to be applied “only if strictly necessary and proportional” and that the use of lethal force ought only to be permitted when “strictly unavoidable to protect human lives”; and the lack of progress in investigations on killings by the security forces, in circumstances “that could be regarded as extra-judicial executions”. THE ARRESTS AT DIYARBAKIR . For example, a series of demonstrations against the government at Diyarbakir, in eastern Turkey, in March 2006 ended with a wave of arrests. On the basis of reports by the legal aid service of the bar association, it is estimated that 35% of the arrests, including children, were subjected to maltreatment and torture. 35 inquiries into suspected cases of abuse were opened: but, over a year later, denounces Amnesty, “not one of them has given rise to even a charge being brought against the security forces”.SOME IMPROVEMENTS. Amnesty International has however welcomed the intention announced by the Turkish government to apply a policy of “zero tolerance against torture” and of the protection of human rights. The organization has observed a reduction in the denunciations of torture and maltreatment of detainees in police custody and an improvement of safeguards to protect suspects against torture during the phases of arrest, detention and interrogation. However, “this commitment by the government – said Duckworth – can never be considered effective and sincere unless measures are adopted to ensure that state employees who violate the absolute prohibition of torture and other forms of maltreatment are brought to justice”. Fact File Until recent times, torture was systematically practised in police and gendarmerie stations throughout Turkey. After the coup d’état in 1980 an estimated one million people were arrested, many of whom were tortured to death by the police, ended up victims of forced disappearances or were condemned at the end of iniquitous trials. The mass violations of human rights in the east and south-east of the country, regions mainly inhabited by the Kurds, took the form of forced disappearances and killings by unknown persons, on which the authorities show no intention of intervening, and the expulsion of roughly a million people from villages evacuated and destroyed by the army in the conflict with armed separatist groups. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly held Turkey responsible for violations of its international obligations in cases regarding the right to life, freedom from torture and maltreatment, fair trial, freedom and security, freedom of expression, an effective judicial appeal process and the protection of property.