Human Rights in Turkey: A Record of Serious Violations
Reports reveal the disastrous human rights situation in Turkey
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees everyone the right to life, liberty and security, equality before the law, property, education, freedom of opinion, employment and participation in decision-making. Article 31 reads: Nothing in this Declaration may be construed as conferring on a State, group or individual any right to engage in an activity or perform an act aimed at the destruction of the rights and freedoms set forth therein.
Despite international agreements that call for the guarantee of human rights, our world is still burdened with practices that undermine those rights, with the peoples of several States suffering from exclusion, marginalization, repression and denial of the most basic rights such as water, food and a decent life.
This year’s annual report by the International Trade Union Confederation, published a few days ago on its official website, revealed that Turkish workers and their unions have been subjected to serious human rights violations against the backdrop of security campaigns led by the Turkish authorities. The report drew wide criticism from local and international human rights institutions against Ankara.
The Confederation was founded on 1 November 2006 after the merger of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions with the World Confederation of Labor, making it the largest trade union federation in the world.
The report said that Turkish police surrounded the headquarters of the Turkish Progressive Trade Union Federation, known as DISK, last May, when they arrested its chairman Arzzo Čerkez-Oglu, its secretary general Adnan Serdar Oglu and 25 other members of the Union, which is one of the largest trade unions in Turkey.
The International Trade Union Confederation accused the Turkish government, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, of pursuing policies hostile to workers and their union representatives. He also accused Ankara of violating their rights as well as those of their defenders.
The largest Turkish trade union confederation endorsed the information contained in the report of the International Trade Union Confederation, which listed Turkey among the 10 worst countries in the world where workers rights were violated. It monitored the imprisonment of 26 teachers who were members of the Education Union Foundation after raiding their homes in the Kurdish-majority province of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey, as well as after inspecting the contents of their offices at their workplaces.
The Turkish authorities continued to imprison trade union leaders whom they had arrested over the past year, because of their opposition to the Turkish Government and their criticism of their anti-union policies, according to the report of the International Federation of Trade Unions, which had also confirmed the authorities’ continued hostility towards workers and the prohibition of certain employers from joining trade unions that protected their rights.
Various Turkish unions have been subjected to security pressures in recent years, especially after the failed coup attempt against President Erdogan’s rule in mid-July 2016, where some were shut down on the pretext of being linked to Fethullah Gulen’s group, which Ankara accuses of being behind this coup attempt. Tens of thousands of their jobs were also dismissed under the pretext of their participation in the coup attempt, while Ankara was accused by international bodies, including a United Nations agency, of violating its labor agreement after the authorities closed down trade unions and jailed some of their leaders.
Turkish trade unions that Ankara has closed have turned to the ILO after the authorities violated their freedom of association, as did the Action-Is Union, but the authorities have not reversed the decision to close the union so far.
The country’s prisons have been witnessing serious violations against prisoners, which have recently worsened sharply, especially with the coronavirus crisis, to the point of naked searches and deprivation of water and food. A report prepared by the Human Rights Commission, the Sub-Committee on the Rights of Convicts and Prisoners, revealed serious violations of the conditions of prisoners in the prisons of Van Izmir Ali Agha and Manman.
Prisoners have difficulty accessing hot and cold water, are given unhygienic food, prisoners are handcuffed by handcuffs during transport to hospitals, regardless of their health status, their requests to change rooms are denied, their pleas are not answered and they are constantly exposed to the use of psychological violence, with prisoners complaining that they have not been allowed to see anyone for 18 months.
Prisoners revealed that they were prey to prison guards who were addressing prisoners in a manner that undermined human dignity, sometimes to the level of threat. The violations resulted in people being placed in the cell as soon as they arrived at the institution with a forced referral and kept there for several days without the provision of cold water.
The report revealed the absence of health care, during the coronavirus pandemic, where there were problems in accessing the health service and visiting the dentist in general, and meeting the doctor in emergencies only, one of the wards was infected with scabies, but they were not transferred to the doctor, and also the convicted and detained were not allowed to use funeral leave, and this practice caused harm.
Despite this, 26 people are in a single cell with only 14 capacity, the prisoners have difficulty accessing medication, and the detainees right to vote has been ignored. Those who had the right to vote were not allowed to vote.
During the first quarter of this year, a previous report of the Prisons Committee of the Association for Human Rights-Istanbul Branch revealed 1233 violations of rights, the most significant of which were the continued torture and ill-treatment of prisoners through physical assault, threats, beatings, searching cells during raids, violations of the right to health care and treatment, prohibition and arbitrary practices.
He continues: all social rights in prisons were abolished under the pretext of the Corona epidemic, where isolation and segregation have intensified, while appropriate measures concerning the disease have not been taken, leading to a significant increase in the number of cases.
