The investigation and prosecution of serious human rights violations committed by officers of the police and gendarmerie are flawed and compounded by inconsistent decisions by prosecutors and judges. As a result, justice for the victims of human rights violations is delayed or denied.
"Turkey must put the protection of the human rights of its citizens in first place," said Larry Cox, Amnesty International USA executive director. "It is unacceptable that the people who have taken an oath to protect their country and bring justice continue to operate as if they are not bound by laws and regulations. Turkey's leaders must make the tough decisions and clean up their country's criminal system."
The new report examines the factors contributing to the impunity for law enforcement officials, including administrative delays, failings in court procedures and intimidation of human rights defenders and journalists. The report draws attention to the absence of an independent body which can impartially and effectively investigate human rights violations by state officials and the lack of centralized data collection of human rights violations committed by the security forces.
The report also found that although reports of torture and ill-treatment in police custody have decreased, they remain frequent.
The main findings in the report include:
-- Torture and ill-treatment, including during unofficial detention, during and after demonstrations, in prisons and during prisoner transfer;
-- Cases of ongoing trials in Turkey where statements allegedly extracted under torture constitute a central part of the evidence but where the court has ruled such evidence admissible;
-- The refusal of courts to recognize independent medical evidence in torture or other ill-treatment cases. The courts usually only accept evidence provided by the Forensic Medical Institute, which is institutionally bound to the Ministry of Justice;
-- The re-introduction of a controversial provision in the revised Law to Fight Terrorism which fails to make explicit that the use of force should be strictly necessary and proportionate and that the use of lethal force is only permissible when "strictly unavoidable to protect life";
-- The lack of progress in investigating fatal shootings by security forces that are not part of an armed clash and may amount to extrajudicial killings.
Amnesty International welcomes the Turkish government's declared
commitment to a "zero tolerance for torture" policy and to the protection of human rights. The organization has noted that there are fewer reports of torture and ill-treatment in police custody and that the safeguards in the protection of suspects against ill-treatment during their apprehension, detention and interrogation have been improved.
"A policy can only be realized through meaningful action," said Maureen Greenwood-Basken, Amnesty International USA advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia. "Until the Turkish government brings the officials who violate the prohibition on torture and other ill-treatment to justice, the government's words are hollow."
"Nothing less than a fully realized practice of 'zero tolerance for impunity' will end the torture, other ill-treatment, killings and enforced disappearances and bring justice to victims," said Cox. "Only then will Turkey begin to remove this stain on the human rights record in its criminal justice system."
Background
Torture was systematically practiced in police and gendarmerie detention throughout Turkey until recently. The 1980 coup was accompanied by the detention of one million people many of whom were tortured and died in police custody, were forcibly disappeared or tried in unfair proceedings. The mass violations of human rights in the mainly Kurdish-populated southeast and eastern regions of Turkey in the 1990s took the form of enforced disappearances and killings by unknown perpetrators which the state authorities showed no willingness to solve, and the forcible eviction of around one million villagers when villages were evacuated and destroyed by the security forces during the conflict with separatist armed groups. Legal changes over the past few years have provided more safeguards against torture in law, but must be fully implemented. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly found Turkey in violation of its international obligations in cases concerning the right to life; freedom from torture and ill-treatment; and the rights to a fair trial, liberty and security, freedom of expression, an effective remedy, and protection of property. -Amnesty International
