>Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 23:58:39 +0100 >From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >http://www.hrw.org/press/2000/11/turkey1108.htm > >HRW World Report 2000: Turkey >FREE Join the HRW Mailing List > >Turkey: Insufficiently Clear Human Rights Agenda for E.U. Accession > >(Brussels, November 8, 2000) The European Union has failed to take >full advantage of an important opportunity to promote human rights >reform in Turkey, Human Rights Watch said today. > >The E.U. today published its Accession Partnership for Turkey, >essentially a list of steps Turkey must take to gain admission to the >E.U. Human Rights Watch said while the document contained much that >was of value, it had a disappointing lack of detail in key areas such >as safeguards against torture, and protection of freedom of >expression. > >"The E.U. missed an unparalleled opportunity to apply leverage," said >Jonathan Sugden, Human Rights Watch's researcher on Turkey. "This is a >disappointment. The Partnership Agreement should have had unambiguous >benchmarks for human rights progress." > >A Human Rights Watch report issued in September urged the E.U. >commission to draw up a Partnership Agreement with clear benchmarks to >signal that the E.U. was serious about Turkey's admission. The report >recommended a detailed program to resolve Turkey's appalling human >rights record. > >Since the 1980 military coup, thousands of people in Turkey have been >tortured; 450 people have died in police custody; at least 140 people >have "disappeared;" and more than two thousand people have been killed >in political killings and extrajudicial executions. Even according to >official figures, nearly half a million people have been displaced >during clearances in mainly Kurdish villages when gendarmes ordered, >threatened or burned villagers out of their homes. Police torture is >still commonplace, and victims include children. Sexual assault or >rape of women and men in custody are frequently reported. Sexual >assault or rape of women and men in custody are frequently >reported. Courts continue to sentence Turkish citizens to terms of >imprisonment for voicing their non-violent opinions, and to shut down >political parties for challenging the dominant ideology. > >The Accession Partnership covers torture, the constraints on freedom >of expression and association, and repression of civil society in >overly broad terms, which the Turkish authorities may use to continue >their traditional policy of delay and prevarication. > >On the issue of language rights, the Accession Partnership document >avoids mention of specific minorities but does set clear goals- the >right to mother tongue broadcasting within a year and mother tongue >education in the medium term-approximately four years. The document is >also firm on abolition of the death penalty, and lifting Turkey's >anomalous reservations to the 1951 Refugee Convention. > >The single most important safeguard against torture is the abolition >of incommunicado detention -- that is, police detention without access >to legal counsel. This was recommended by the Council of Europe's >Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the UN Committee against >Torture nearly a decade ago and still has not happened. The document >should have spelled out this problem as a matter of urgency. > >On freedom of expression, the document goes little further than the >E.U.'s earlier sincere but vague solicitations. There is no specific >mention either of the right of conscientious objection or the >headscarf ban which is denying thousands of women access to university >education. The extensive violations committed by the Turkish security >forces and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) during the sixteen-year >conflict in the southeast are left unresolved and treated as a >conveniently closed chapter. > >Human Rights Watch urges the Accession Partnership for Turkey to be >strengthened by establishing clear benchmarks in the following areas: > >Incommunicado detention should be abolished in law and practice. This >means revising the Criminal Procedure Code to give all prisoners >access to legal counsel from the first moments of police custody. >Clear penalties should be demanded for police and gendarmficers >who try to circumvent regulations. Blindfolding of detainees should be >explicitly forbidden. > >Permission should be given for the publication of the remaining eight >reports of the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of >Torture on their visits to Turkey. > >Prosecutors and judges must immediately stop indicting or sentencing >people for the expression of their non-violent opinions. Current >practice contravenes Article 10 of the European Convention on Human >Rights, which supersedes domestic law (according to the Turkish >Constitution). Those imprisoned for their non-violent opinions should >be promptly released and their political rights restored. The >omission of conscientious objectors and women denied access to >education because of the headscarf ban should also be addressed in the >Accession Partnership. > >The Turkish government should institute a full commission of inquiry, >composed of independent experts, into the human rights and >humanitarian law violations committed during the course of the fifteen >year conflict with the PKK. Where violations are established to have >taken place, those responsible should be brought to justice, and the >victims compensated. > >HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH > >-- >Press Agency Ozgurluk >In Support of the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Struggle in Turkey >http://www.ozgurluk.org >DHKC: http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc > > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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