On the 20th of September started the first session of the Turkey Tribunal in Geneva. As recalled by Tulkens during the introduction, the Turkey Tribunal is an opinion tribunal. In other words, it does not fall within the judicial order of a state or from a court set up by an International Organization. The tribunal is an extraordinary court born of the determination of civil society. Even if its decisions are not binding, it is an instrument and a platform to give recognition, visibility, and a voice to people alleging violations of their fundamental rights. The tribunal is independent, respects the principle of a fair trial, and uses a judicial method to release decisions. The fundamental objective of the Turkey tribunal is to alert public opinion and policymakers and to contribute to the advancement of international and national law.

The tribunal will hear six rapporteurs about torture, abductions, press freedom, impunity, access to justice and judicial independence, and crimes against humanity in Turkey. 15 witnesses will also be heard, and the Turkish government received an invitation to attend the judgment and copies of the report but is not present.

In the end, the tribunal will formulate an opinion on the conformity of Turkey’s actions with International Human Rights law and International Humanitarian Law. The tribunal does not have investigative powers and will not engage in criminal or civil liability. The decision, although not binding, has a high moral authority and gives legal tools for victims, lawyers, or NGOs who want to take action afterward.

First rapporteur on torture:

The main legal text which enshrined the right not to be tortured is the Convention against Torture and the European Convention on Human Rights. The rapporteur recalled that those conventions establish the minimum that national laws should include in the criminal code and that the criminalization of torture by imprisonment sanctions is an obligation. In other words, an act that fulfills the criteria of torture according to the CAT cannot be considered a minor crime, such as ill-treatment for instance. The prohibition of torture is absolute, which means that no exception or derogation can justify the use of torture (terrorism). The responsibility of the state can be engaged if it failed to protect citizens from acts of torture perpetrated by private actors, and for failure to investigate and to prosecute. The burden of proof is on the victims, but if there is a reasonable suspicion of torture while they were deprived of their liberty, the government will have to provide evidence to the contrary.

The rapporteur relied on statistics released by the Turkish government. However, he pointed out discrepancies between figures provided by NGOs and by the government. The rapporteur alleged therefore that all allegations have not been investigated by the government. For instance, 2063 cases of people denunciated to the NGO Human rights in Turkey between 2000 and 2015. The rapporteur noted that the number of cases opened declined of 50% between 2013 and 2015. However, the indicators demonstrate that the number of cases increased and did not drop. The explanation would be the decrease of the will of the government to punish torture. The acts of torture documented in Turkey are mainly the excessive use of force in detention, beatings, humiliations, sexual assault, electrics chocs.

Torture has been a spreading practice in Turkey for decades, especially after the coup d’Etat in 1980. In the 2000s, zero-tolerance towards torture has been applied, which lead to some improvements. However, over the last 10 years, a resurgence of torture can be noted, in almost total impunity. Currently, 441 cases before the ECtHR for violations of art3 are examined, which represent more cases than those investigated by Turkey.

The targeted groups are members of the Kurdish movement, of the Gulen movement, juvenile, and ordinary criminals. In addition, The way they are repressed depends on the necessity of the police to turn them into informants. Members of the PKK, extreme left wings organization, or Gulen movement are more likely to be abducted, and wives of the suspicious men detained.

The Rapporteur concluded that the use of torture is systematic and organized, without investigations, punishment, and due diligence. In response to that, the Turkish government argued that victims do not provide any medical proof, they are political opponents, and that the convictions rate for acts of torture is very low.

Witness 1: Mehmet Alp

The first witness is a chemistry teacher and an administrator in a school in a Turkish region in southeastern turkey. On the 18^th of April 2018, he was forcibly abducted after taking his child to school. A car arrived behind him, and the men got him into the car. They told that they were policemen, and that one of his students was set to have joined the PKK, and that other students were attending meetings of the Gulen movements and joined the PKK as well. They finally released him and on the 20^th of April, they came to his house and took his wife under custody for 4 days. This abduction can be explained by the end of the peace process between the PKK and the government and the beginning of armed conflict had begun again, They tried to warn the authorities, but nothing was done about it.

One month before the coup, he was arrested again and asked about the Gulen movement. In total, he was detained in 4 jails and 17 cells.  For 2 months, they were not able to eat fruits or vegetables, neither to see a doctor. He started having internal problems such as internal bleeding. However, the guardians were told not to take care of him because he was considered a terrorist belonging to the Gulen movement. After those 2 months, he was finally brought to the hospital and detected intestinal cancer. In November, he was transferred again. On the 28^th of May 2017, two people uncuffed him and brought him 200km away. They kept asking questions about the functions he fulfilled during the coup of the 15^th of July. He answered that he did not participate in the coup, he had nothing to do with the Gullen group. He refused to sign the documents. He had a bag over his head, and he was in a dark room, underneath the prison. They beat him over his head and body with metallic things. He fainted, was bleeding from his nose. He was placed in a van and finally got to the hospital. In this prison, he met an academician tortured with electricity.

He managed to write down everything he has gone through thanks to toilet papers. He was not allowed to see his lawyer or his wife.

On the 6^th of June, he was supposed to go before the courts, and the guardians threatened him and his family if he said anything about being a victim of torture. He was declared guilty.

He was accused in the first place of falsification, and then of being a member of an armed association, and finally of involvement in the coup. After being released, he went to the authorities, but nothing happened because police, prosecutors, and court work together. He was only able to fight for his rights in free countries, in Turkey it is impossible.

Witness 2: Erhan Dogan

The second witness was a teacher of history in Ankara. When the coup happened, he was working at a school belonging to the Gulen group in Ankara. One week after, a lot of arrests starting to happen, and the schools closed to the Gulen group were pillaged, burned, destroyed. Ten days later, a teacher at his school called him because policemen were asking for him. He went to the school, and he saw people waiting for him. They held him from his collar and pushed him to the wall. They insulted him as a terrorist, beat him and they said that if he refused to obey their commands, his whole life will turn into misery, including his family. They asked Kim who he has had meetings with or discussed. They asked for ten names of the senior officials of the Gulen group. In addition, they wanted him to accept that he was a member of a terrorist organization and to sign the documents. The witness answered that he was not a terrorist so he was tortured for a while. An official policeman from Ankara came afterward, stole their computer, phone, and bring them to Ankara town, the anti-terrorist police station.

One there, he was escorted by 12 policemen who insulted them, called them dogs, and beat them up. He was separated from the others, and they told him that he could die and that a lot of people die here and nobody knows. They took him to a gym, with people in orange and cuffs. There was blood around him on the walls, which was proof that they tortured people here. He learned later that soldiers arrested after the coup were tortured here. He was given a small piece of bread, jam, a bottle of water. The other detainees were scholars. One had diabetics and all their demands for care were dismissed. He recalled several acts of torture, such as being undressed with cold water on him and beat with bludgeons or four officers who hit his head on the wall and kept asking questions about the Gulen group. One time, they tied him with his hands behind, and they left him up hanging from the selling one or two hours. After that, he recalled that he thought that all his buns were broken and he was not able to walk. They brought him to a person dressed up like a doctor, who asked him how he was. He answered that he had been tortured so the officials took him back and tortured him again. The second time he answered that he was fine, so he came back to the gym.

One of the most impactful events he went through was hearing the screams of women detainees in adjacent cells, who were begging the officials not to rape them. The officials threaten his wife and daughter, who might end up like those women. This event made him want to commit suicide during the toilet break, but because of religious beliefs he did not do it

When he was taken to court, the policeman who tortured him came with him, and the judge did not ask a question, because had been already heard when he got arrested. So the judge decided on his arrest and he was taken to the aggravated crime to prison. There, he suffered from the Palestinians’ anger, because they were presented as terrorist members.

They took them to a cell for 16 people, and they were about 50 people. Living conditions were very poor: they had to wait for 4o minutes to go to toilets, and they had hot water once a week for 30 minutes. In addition, the guardians constantly insulted them.

One day, they told them that a delegation from the European Human Rights Committee will come to inspect. They told them that if they said anything apart from the script they were given, they would not be able to see their family (who they can only see once every two months) or they will be sent to solitary confinement. The delegation finally came, but nobody said anything.

The witness recalled that they constantly heard the statement: “even if you go out your life will be hell”.

He was in total detained. 10months without any indictment. After he was released, he found that the grounds for his detention was he worked in a school belonging to the Gulen group, was a member of a trade union, had a bank account at bank Asia, and used the application called Bylock.

He went before court four times and was condemned for 7 years and 6 months of prison, without a fair trial. He presented a recourse before the administrative tribunal, and the highest course released him under judiciary control. The court finally confirmed the sentence and his case is currently reviewed by the cassation court. He escaped Turkey in the meantime.  Given that his family saw him as a terrorist and the isolating pressure of the society because of the discourse of the government, he decided to flee Turkey. He crossed over from Turkey to Greece by the river, and he is located in Germany, where he is trying to rebuild his life with his family.

Witness 3: Eren Keskin, human rights lawyer

The lawyer recalled that not only police or soldiers are guilty, but prosecutors who do not lunch investing, judges who acquit the perpetrators, forensic doctors who do not document torture.

The witness pointed out that one of the main problems is the documentation of torture, because judges, only accept forensic reports as evidence for torture when the law does not establish an exhaustive list of acceptable proofs. However, forensic doctors are civil servants dependent on political authority and therefore linked to the government. They, therefore, do not release proof of acts of torture.

Turkey was already by the ECtHR in the Sukran Aydin case, because there was no report from an independent doctor or rehabilitation centers.

According to the witness, torture has always been a state policy, even if it is legally prohibited. Lawyers are kept outside of the system because they are defenders, and sometimes there are not allowed to visit their clients in prison. For instance, they release reports of people almost dead stating that they can remain in prison.

The witness has been sentenced as an armed terrorist, which is the first time after 30years of working as a lawyer. She expects to be detained every day, such as many politicians from HDP who are in jail only because of their thoughts.

Morgane Bizien

Violations of press freedom in Turkey are not new. During the military regime in the aftermath of the 1980 coup freedom of the press was severely limited. Gradually after the restoration of democracy, freedom of press gained momentum. However, violations of press freedom continued to exist.

Since Recep Tayyip Erdogan came into power there has been limited improvement in human rights protections in Turkey. Yet, problems regarding press freedom have never been addressed seriously.

International organizations have made a note of such repression over the years. The European Commission addressed a report on Turkey’s application for membership of the European Union to the Parliament and the Council on 10 October 2012. The following extract is particularly important:

“As regards freedom of expression, a number of journalists were released pending trial after excessively long periods spent in pre-trial detention. The third judicial reform package prohibits the seizure of written work before publication. It also eases restrictions on media reporting of criminal investigations. There continues to be room for debating some topics perceived as sensitive, such as the Armenian issue or the role of the military, and opposition views are regularly expressed. However, these reforms fall short of a significant improvement regarding freedom of expression. The increasing incidence of violations of freedom of expression raise serious concerns, and freedom of the media continued to be further restricted in practice. The increasing tendency to imprison journalists, media workers and distributers fuelled these concerns. The European Court of Human Rights received a large number of applications concerning violations of freedom of expression by Turkey.

The legal framework on organized crime and terrorism is still imprecise and contains definitions which are open to abuse, leading to numerous indictments and convictions. Moreover, its interpretation by prosecutors and courts is uneven and is not in line with the European Convention on Human Rights or the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. Turkey needs to amend its penal code and anti-terror legislation to make a clear distinction between the incitement to violence and the expression of nonviolent ideas. The application of Articles 6 and 7 of the Anti-Terror Law in combination with Articles 220 and 314 of the Turkish Criminal Code leads to abuses; in short, writing an article or making a speech can still lead to a court case and a long prison sentence for membership or leadership of a terrorist organization. High-level government and state officials and the military repeatedly turn publicly against the press and launch court cases. On a number of occasions journalists have been fired after signing articles openly critical of the government.

Website bans of disproportionate scope and duration continued. Since May 2009 the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TİB) has published no statistics on banned sites. Court cases are ongoing against the You Tube video-sharing website and other web portals. The Law on the Internet, which limits freedom of expression and restricts citizens’ right to access to information, needs to be revised. An Information Technologies and Communication Board (ICTA) decision introducing optional internet filters entered into force”.

In terms of access to justice for journalists in Turkey the situation is no different for journalists compared to other groups in Turkey. Journalists have faced numerous hurdles by a government that is determined to do everything to thwart access to justice. Some journalists remained in detention for an exceptionally long time and were released without their trials having resulted in an acquittal or dismissal. These suspended trials thus remained like a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads; resuming their activity, they remained at risk of getting arrested again without the slightest notice. For instance, this was the case of Bariş Terkoğlu and Bariş Pehlivan, working for the OdaTV website. Both were released on 14 September 2012 after 578 days in detention. On one journalist, charges were brought after critical comments against the journalist concerned by the President of the Republic. On the journalist the President stated that “Someone financed terrorists in the context of the Gezi events. This man is now behind bars…”.

Since 2016 repression against journalists have only seen an increase, According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) The number of journalists detained only in the first year of the state of emergency surpassed 100. Other organizations gave much larger figures, with Free Journalists Initiative claiming that 187 journalists were under arrest by the end of the OHAL on July 2018.24 The discrepancies among numbers given by different organizations underline a more dangerous trend of churn in Turkish jails and lack of information about the fate of journalists in the country. By the time this submission was prepared the Free Journalists Initiative’s number was 154,26 and of RSF was 34.27. A further 167 journalists were under search warrant and had to flee Turkey to escape arrest according to the Stockholm Centre for Freedom’s database.

These factors show that the press freedom in Turkey today has been threatened at its very foundations. There is a government that is willing to do anything to silence journalists who are willing to question the government. The journalists are working in a hostile and a threatening environment. This is especially the case if the journalist is critical of government policy. This is the state of affairs of journalists in Turkey.

Information from:

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Impunity has been a historic problem in Turkey. There were two periods when impunity in Turkey levels the 1980s and for a few years after the 2015 parliamentary elections. Impunity caught hold during the 2016 coup attempt.

In the 80s once martial law was declared and extended throughout the country and until 1983 and Turkey was governed under repressive military rule, leading to devastating consequences for human rights. As an illustration, more than half a million people were arbitrarily detained on political grounds and thousands were subjected to widespread torture and mistreatment. Additionally, more than two hundred extrajudicial killings and fifty court-ordered executions occurred during that era. Despite these massive numbers, in a provisional article the 1982 Turkish Constitution adopted under the military rule provided full immunity to the leaders of the military coup, as well all as military-public officials, from any form of prosecution.

In the 1980s and 1990s the reason for the impunity was because of the Turkish state security forces and the PKK engaged in violent confrontations, at times verging on full-scale warfare. A state of emergency was thus declared where the fighting between Turkish state forces and the PKK was most intense. Regional governors in each emergency province and in the adjacent provinces, with all private and public security forces under their command, were responsible for taking any and all necessary measures under the state of emergency regime. These ‘quasi-martial law’ exceptional powers included the authority to impose curfews, to prohibit persons whose activities were deemed detrimental to public order from entering the concerned region, and to evacuate villages. Against this backdrop, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) examined a large number of applications alleging grave human rights violations, including torture, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances that arose out ofstate officials’ activities in the 1990s in Turkey’s Kurdish southeastern region. The Court has repeatedly found Turkey violating the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in over 175 cases concerning the right to life (Art. 2), the freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment (Art. 3), the right to liberty and security (Art. 5), the right to a fair trial (Art.6), the right to an effective remedy (Art. 13) and the protection of property (Art. 1 of Protocol No.1).

The other phase of violent impunity was after the 2015 parliamentary elections. Since then the levels to which violent impunity has reached is alarming. After the 2016 coup an emergency was declared and that resulted in arbitrary actions that resulted in mass arrests, detentions, extracting forced confessions inside jails, filing of false complaints against dissidents, sudden and arbitrary raids on properties of accused individuals without permission, violent ill-treatment of political opponents / dissenters inside jails among other problems. In fact, the situation has been so bad that in November 2019 UN High commissioner noted that “the escalation of torture and violence against detainees while, at the same time, security personnel who may have committed crimes on behalf of the government, enjoyed immunity from prosecution both during and after the attempted coup”. The then high commissioner also suggested that “to tackle the numerous root causes of impunity” in the country. These have remained unaddressed and will need to be done.

Information retrieved from:

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Out of 128 countries, Turkey ranks a poor 107^th in the rule of law index of 2020. In the year 2014, it was ranked 59^th. These figures reveal a lot about the state of affairs as far as thejudiciary in Turkey is concerned.

To understand why Turkey ranks so poorly in the rule of law index there is a need to understand some of the core tenets of what rule of law is. The rule of law is a conception of the State in which all public powers always act within the constraints set out by law, in accordance with the values of democracy and fundamental rights, and under the control of independent and impartial courts. Under the rule of law, courts thus operate as the ultimate guardians of the respect of the law by public authorities and the State accepts courts’ authority.

These rankings do show that the Turkish state is not a rule of law state. In order to clearly understand this there is a need to take two parameters into consideration. They are

➢ Judicial Independence

➢ Access to justice and effective judicial protection

Judicial independence and rule of law:

Theoretically, the Turkish constitution ensures the independence of the judiciary. Article 9 of the Turkish constitution states that “Judges shall be independent in the discharge of their duties; they shall give judgment in accordance with the Constitution, laws, and their personal conviction conforming with the law. No organ, authority, office or individual may give orders or instructions to courts or judges relating to the exercise of judicial power, send them circulars, or make recommendations or suggestions. Article 139 establishes the security of tenure of judges and public prosecutors and stipulates that: Judges and public prosecutors shall not be dismissed, or unless they request, shall not be retired before the age prescribed by the Constitution; nor shall they be deprived of their salaries, allowances or other rights relating to their status, even as a result of the abolition of a court or a post”.

The deterioration of the Turkish judiciary started in 2014 when the Erdogan government signed an Omnibus Law (Law n° 6526 amending the Anti-terror Law, the criminal procedure code, and various laws) that abolished the special courts set up under the umbrella of art. 10 of the Anti-terror Law, the so-called “liberty judges”, and the special prosecutors, without further prorogations of their operations. These changes occurred while investigations and trials on high-profile cases were going on. Once the law entered into force in March of the same year, special judges and prosecutors were relocated by HSYK (then known as the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors) to other tasks in only 15 days. The number and location of the new courts, their territorial jurisdiction, and judges and prosecutors assigned to the new courts were decided by the HSYK in only 6 days since the entering into force of the law.

After signing this law into force The appointment of judges and prosecutors did not follow a public call for applications; judges and prosecutors were not consulted prior to their appointment; the reasons for their appointment were neither made public nor communicated to them. The HSYK decision about the appointment was not reasoned. However, this was only one consequence of the deterioration.

Between 2014 and 2016 due to the 2014 omnibus law, Under Government pressure, 2014 and 2016, the Council of Judges and Prosecutors continued to engage in large-scale transfers of judges and prosecutors without their consent. In many cases the reason for the transfer was notable. In one case a judge; judges İbrahim Lorasdağı, Barış Cömert and Necla Yeşilyurt Gülbiçim from the Istanbul Court, who released twenty-one detained journalists after eight months of pre-trial detention, were suspended by the HYSK. In another instance, judges of the Istanbul 37th Heavy Penal Court were removed by the Council after the Court released seventeen detained lawyers. There are many examples of such actions that can be given. A June 2016 ICJ report highlights that transfers of judges between judicial positions in different regions of Turkey were being applied as a hidden form of disciplinary sanction and as a means to marginalize judges and prosecutors seen as unsupportive of Government interests or objectives.

If between 2014 ad 2016 there were large-scale transfers of judges, from 2016 onwards after the coup there was large-scale purging of the judiciary. In the immediate aftermath of the coup d’etat, the judicial Council approved a proscription list of 2,745 judges and prosecutors. Between 2016 and 2020 there have been mass dismissals of more than 4000 Turkish judges and prosecutors as well as mass arrests of around 2450 Turkish judges and prosecutors.

The judiciary in Turkey is anything but independent. Laws have stifled the independence of the judiciary, judges have been transferred or suspended, they have been pressured, there has been a purge of the judiciary. None of this has any relationship with rule of law or the idea that law as stated by the constitution and the penal code is supreme. Rule of law is the idea that public powers always act within the constraints set out by law.

Access to justice and effective judicial protection:

The biggest constraint regarding these two points on access to justice and effective judicial protection is a judiciary that is not fully free from governmental pressure.

Since the Gezi protests and even before, in high profile cases the Human Rights Defenders (HRD) and especially lawyers have been a target of the Government.

Vague definition and broad interpretation of Article 314 of the Turkish Criminal Code, which constitutes the basis for the intimidation and detention of hundreds of thousands of people, has been repeatedly found by the ECtHR to be contrary to the Convention principles and arbitrarily applied. Most recently, in its judgment dated 22 December 2020 in Selahattin Demirtas v.Turkey 129 (No. 2) case, the Court’s Grand Chamber observed, in line with the Venice Commission’s findings in its Opinion130 on Articles 216, 299, 301, and 314 of the Criminal Code, that the Code does not define the concepts of an “armed organization” and an “armed group”.

In terms of effective judicial protection, the state is unable to do it because of the arrest of judges and lawyers. Due to the arrests and detention of lawyers and judges, the number of people who can represent victims of abuse of laws and arbitrary arrests is simply unavailable to do so. In the aftermath of July 2016, 615 lawyers were arrested and 1,600 faced prosecution based on terrorism-related accusations. 450 lawyers have been convicted so far to a total of 2786 years in jail, according to “The Arrested Lawyers Initiative”. Among persecuted lawyers, some were presidents (or former presidents) of provincial bar associations. The consequence is long periods of individuals being in jail without any trial. There is also a long period of waiting time for people to get access and judicial protection.

This also a representation of lack of Rule of law is the idea that public powers always act within the constraints set out by law. This is also an affirmation that the judiciary in Turkey is anything but independent.

Information from:

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Abductions have always remained a serious issue in Turkey. With the brief exception of the 2000s Turkey has unfortunately had a poor track record as far as dealing with the issue of abduction of individuals is concerned. Between 2002 and 2015 only 1 case of enforced disappearance was transmitted to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. However, since 2016 the trend has reversed with 68 cases of abductions between then and 2020/2021. The 68 are reported cases and thus unreported cases can be thought off to be several times higher.

There are two kinds of abductions that Turkey is involved in. Abductions within borders i.e. domestic abductions and domestic beyond the International borders. As far as abductions in the international borders is concerned, Turkish officials have repeatedly claimed that Turkey was involved in more than 100 international abductions. In fact, in sharp contrast, Turkey is much more open about its responsibility in terms of extra-territorial abductions.

Abductions take place in broad daylight without any fear of consequences and repercussions from the law and order machienary.  For instance, an individual was abducted by a heavily armed group of almost 40 people with many witnesses being present. In these instances people did testify to the police about the abduction of individuals. For instance in the case where an individual was abducted by 40 people there were many witnesses who gave detailed information to the police about such abductions. Technology such as CCTV cameras also did not act as a deterrence against perpetrators who wanted to kidnap individuals in this particular case and did not in the case of other individuals.

Many of the abductees were considered by the Turkish State as political opponents. Therefore, many went into hiding knowing that they would be the next in line to get arrested. There were many ways to deduce the involvement of the state in internal abductions of individual people. One was that reference can be made to various statements made by people who were initially abducted but then resurfaced and were finally able to make statements. In one particular case an individual testified before the Ankara 34th High Criminal Court that he was abducted by some of his former Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (“MIT”) colleagues. During a March 2019 hearing in a separate case an individual confirmed that he worked for the Turkish state before he was he was abducted by MIT. Once he was released the abducted individual told human rights watch that he had been kept for 3 months in a secret detention facility by men who told him they worked for the state.

Even more incriminating evidence of state involvement in such abductions is that CCTV showing that the abductors frequently wore clothes or badges indicating that they worked for the Turkish police forces or the Turkish secret services. Moreover, these abductions were confirmed by confirmed by a video interview given by Mustafa Yeneroğlu, member of Turkish parliament and former chair of the parliament’s Committee on Human Rights Inquiry.

All abductees, consequently, disappeared for a period ranging from one month to as much as two years without any information on their whereabouts was given.

There are also other ways by which abductees are harassed by the Turkish state. They are as follows;

1. The abductees are not allowed to openly discuss their situation with their relatives.
2. The abductees are limited in their right to choose their own lawyer.
3. The abductees are not brought promptly for a judge
4. The abductees are put under pressure to not fully pursue their defence
5. The abductees are prevented from being examined by an independent physician.

As a consequence of such manifestly illegal actions by the Turkish state and government political opponents and in extension the ordinary public life in fear in the event that they criticize their government. The public at large fear terrible consequences for them and their family which has a chilling effect on freedom of speech, privacy of individual, fundamental human rights and most importantly the dignity of the larger public. The public and especially political opponents live in fear of repression and with no guarantee for their safety and security. The situation is such that anything can happen anyone opposing the government.

Most experts consider such actions to be violations of international laws and statutes and is considered to be enforced disappearances by such experts who understand the legality and illegality of state actions.

The UN on the Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearance (the “UN Declaration”) enforced disappearances occur when “persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government, or by organised groups or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support, direct or indirect, consent or acquiescence of the Government, followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law.”

Article 1 of the UN declaration states that:

“Any act of enforced disappearance is an offence to human dignity. It is condemned as a denial of the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and as a grave and flagrant violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reaffirmed and developed in international instruments in this field.”

The actions of the Turkish state and known facts corroborate with the definitions of what constitutes abductions or specific method of abduction like enforced disappearances.

Information from:

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Just one organization named Human Rights Association – (IHA HRD in Turkish) has reported some 2063 complaints of torture in the years between 2013-2018. These statistics show that torture is a significant problem in Turkey today.

Torture has been a historic reality and continues to be a present-day reality. Over the last forty years since the 1980 coup torture has been used widely in Turkey. Statistics show that in the 1990s torture was very common in prisons across the country. Various CPT (Committee for the prevention of torture) and well as UN statistics have shown that between 1991 and 2020 Turkey had 620 cases of violation of article 3 of the ECHR. Article 3 of the ECHR treats torture as a human rights violation without exception. With the brief exception of the 2000s when the first Erdogan government declared its zero-tolerance policy towards torture, throughout this entire period torture has been a pervasive and serious issue. For the years 2010 to 2020 i.e. the entire decade independent sources estimate that 3,000 torture complaints were filed on average. The estimate of 2063 between 2013 to 2018 may also be considered alongside the 3000 complaints filed on an average.

Estimates are a reflection of what is only part of the problem. The Turkish government does not release exact numbers on the cases of torture. However, some other problems include lack of indictment in torture cases, police harassment and intimidation of individuals who pursue torture complaints against such officers who are involved in the torture of individuals, declining trend as far opening a torture case is concerned.

The consequences of torture on political prisoners in Turkey assume an altogether different dimension in Turkey. The least attention is paid to the persecution and torture of political opponents in Turkey. This has especially been so since 2016. Several laws passed after the 2016 coup ensures the possibility of long-term custody in police stations without judicial review, possibility to deny contact with a lawyer for 5 days, refusing lawyers, prohibiting the communication of the judicial file including medical reports, impunity of security officials, (…) which are accompanied by a sharp increase in (allegations of) cases of torture.

Torture in Turkey is a reality and the situation is dire. Various reports on the complaints on torture, the lack of respect for the basic rights of imprisoned people, and vague laws with the intent of persecuting political opponents have placed citizens across various sections of society in a vulnerable situation.  Some laws such as detaining people without a political review increase the possibility of grievous torture being inflicted on the individual. In addition, such provisions in various laws are in every way a violation of International law and various human rights statutes.

Information from:

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In the conventional sense, there is not exactly something called a tribunal court.

However, a tribunal can assume multiple forms. A tribunal can be an institution with the authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes. Such institutions may or may not be known or called courts.

However, several institutions are tribunals and have the mandate to function like courts. These can be called or are known as tribunal courts. For example, ICTR or International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda had the mandate of prosecuting people who were involved in the Rwandan genocide. It involved the typical court proceedings such as presenting evidence in front of the judge. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is not the only tribunal court that had the mandate of prosecuting people who were involved in serious criminal activities. There is also a special tribunal for Lebanon that is investigating the circumstances under which former President Rafic Hariri was assassinated. To deal with crimes in the former Yugoslavia there is an international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

There is a significant difference between a court and a tribunal. A tribunal has a specific mandate of individuals or the type of individuals who can be prosecuted. That is not the case with courts. This can be said to be the case with both the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International court of justice (ICJ). Indeed, the ICC deals with crimes committed by individuals, and the ICJ deals with disputes between nation-states. However, the Rome Statute that governs the conduct of the ICC lists four kinds of activities as crimes. They are genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. Crime of aggression was included as a serious criminal offense in 2017. The ICJ is an organ of the UN and thus the UN statute governs the ICJ’s conduct as well as other relevant international law. Therefore, the ICC and ICJ would not be classed as a tribunal because the courts deal with a wide range of cases rather than specific cases and individuals connected to the case.

The most common non-court activity of a tribunal is an award of claims and compensation to businesses. An international tribunal can order multinational companies to seize assets in case governments fail to pay the compensation in case of a business dispute.

Sources:

1. https://books.google.nl/books?id=4GgYAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y.

2.https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/tribunal?q=tribunal.

3. https://www.icc-cpi.int/nr/rdonlyres/ea9aeff7-5752-4f84-be94-0a655eb30e16/0/rome_statute_english.pdf.

HALT – AN UNDERSTANDING

The intention of Halt:

A promising future for every young person… by learning from mistakes and making them right. Young people learn by investigating and exploring boundaries. Sometimes they go too far. Cross-border behavior poses a threat to a promising future. Knowing your limits and acting on them is important for a promising future.

Halt therefore wants to help young people to prevent mistakes, let them learn from mistakes and give them the opportunity to correct mistakes once made. This has helped young people themselves, but also victims of transgressive behavior and society in the broadest sense.

Vision of Halt:

Halt is active where young people are active. Stop is therefore:

• In connection  with both the justice chain and the local youth partners: schools, neighborhood teams, youth institutions and sports associations.

• In development  to provide increasingly better tailor-made solutions, aimed at the problems of the young person and the impact that the young person’s behavior has on victims and society.

• In control by professional employees and good business operations.

Children’s rights collective:

Halt is a partner of the Children’s Rights Collective. The Children’s Rights Collective monitors the implementation and compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in the Netherlands, in law, policy and practice. Together we stand up for children’s rights.

Why go to halt?:

The young people seek assistance from halt because many a times they do not know what to do when a line is crossed. Crossing a line may look small. However, a combination of activities and the number of times line is crossed may have a significant impact on the youth and may normalize criminal behaviour among them. Halt deals with solution to criminalization of youth and the crossing of boundaries.

How does the Halt penalty work?:

The Halt penalty is a penalty tailored to the offense or offense and to the young person. The number of hours the punishment lasts depends on a number of points such as age and the seriousness of the situation.

A Halt penalty can consist of the following parts:

• Conversations between young person, parents and the Halt employee.
• Creating learning assignments.
• Offering apologies.
• Compensate for any damage.
• A work order.
• Practicing (social) knowledge.
• Decrease of the signalling instrument.

Consequences of the Halt penalty?

A positively completed Halt sentence is not included in the judicial documentation. A young person therefore does not get a ‘criminal record’. If a young person refuses a Halt sentence or does not comply with his agreements, he is usually fined. A number of public order violations can also result in judicial documentation (a criminal record) when this fine is accepted. Think of rowdyness, public drunkenness and the possession of alcohol, for example.

Police records

Although the Halt sentence does not provide judicial documentation, the offense and the imposition of the Halt sentence are recorded in the police records (even if a young person refuses a Halt sentence). Usually the police keep the data about the Halt sentence for five years.

Registration Halt

Halt registers personal data* of parent(s), juveniles and others involved in the Halt sentence, in order to be able to properly implement it. If necessary, Halt shares personal data of parents and young people with organizations with which Halt collaborates, such as the police, the Public Prosecution Service and the Council for Child Protection. Halt adheres to privacy regulations both when registering and when sharing information with other organizations. Halt does not store the data for more than five years.

* Personal data is all data that can be traced back to a person. For example: name, address and telephone number, but also the name and date of birth of parents. This data is stored digitally. Halt does not record more data than is necessary.

Declaration of Good Conduct (VOG)

When a young person successfully completes his Halt sentence, there is no problem in getting a Certificate of Good Conduct (VOG). You may sometimes need a VOG for a job or education. However, there are training courses, internships and jobs for which the police must conduct an investigation (screening). Think of training as a security guard or flight attendant, or an internship or job with the police or Marechaussee. During a screening, the chief of police may consider the Halt sentence in his decision. He then looks at the criminal offense, the circumstances under which the offense was committed, the chance of repetition and recent personal developments.

It is incorrect if a study program states on its website or in the brochure that a young person will not be admitted if he/she has had a Halt sentence. This is because a decision must be made by the chief of police (see above). Please note: sometimes this consideration can lead to a refusal. If you are refused a course, internship or job and you do not agree with this, you can object.

Refer to help

During the Halt penalty, the Halt employee investigates whether there is more to it. This is done on the basis of a nationally developed and recognized signaling list. Does a young person suffer from depression after the divorce of his parents or because he is transsexual and does not feel recognized at school? Is extra help needed because the family is in a difficult financial situation and therefore experiences a lot of stress? Does a young person often use drugs or alcohol? In such cases, Halt, together with the young person and parents (or other caregivers), can look for suitable help and initiate it, for example the neighborhood team. If care is already involved with the young person or the family, Halt will coordinate with this care provider. In case of serious concerns, we start the Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Reporting Code and we have consulted with Safe Home.

Role of parents

Parents and educators are important at Halt. That is why Halt looks together with them to see what is needed to let their child learn from the (cross-border) behaviour. A good relationship between parent and child contributes to a positive development of young people. Especially when young people cross a border, parental involvement is indispensable. That is why Halt involves parents in the Halt sentence. They are present at conversations. But they also support their child during the Halt sentence, for example by offering an apology.

Halt supports parents in their role as educators. By giving parents more responsibility and strengthening their parenting skills. This contributes to a long-term positive development of the young person. After all, parents remain involved in their child’s life. If more help is needed, Halt and parents can look into additional help, for example from the neighbourhood team.

Importance of parent involvement

Research shows that strengthening parental involvement and parenting skills can help prevent criminal behavior among young people. It is important to involve parents at an early stage. As a young person gets older, the influence of friends, school attendance and leisure activities also increases .

Problems with parenting skills, such as little supervision and poor communication between parents and child, can increase the chance of criminal behavior. That is why it is good to look at how we can strengthen the parenting skills of parents.

Our approach with parents

During the Halt sentence, we want to empower parents to take responsibility and influence their child’s behavior. The approach is that we stand next to parents and together we look at what is necessary for their child. How does Halt do this?

• Halt usually involves parents in the start, apology and final meeting.
• Parents are involved in parts of the Halt punishment, for example in making the teaching assignments.
• Parents support their child in offering an apology and are also involved in a recovery interview.
• With the Parents on Turn method, parents use “cause cards” to talk to their child. They discuss why the child has done something criminal. And they make a plan that they want to work on together.
• If necessary, a Halt employee will speak separately with parents in a parent meeting. Then there is more room to discuss sensitive topics.

For all further information on the organization Halt please refer the link: https://www.halt.nl/.

Article by – Aniruddh Rajendran

Project name: Preventing, protecting and supporting missing children from harm across national borders

Brief Description: Every year there are many children who go missing in the European Union. This is due to conflict and abuse suffered by the children. This requires a programme that understands the root causes of the problems and resolving them so as to ensure that children do not go missing from various countries within the European Union due to them being exposed vulnerable situations such as conflict and abuse.

To address the issue of child disappearances project aims to:

• Collect data on extent, root causes & risks + caseload from hotlines & mediators
• Raise awareness on causes, risks & vulnerabilities of missing children + on services available to prevent & respond
• Sustain, develop & coordinate a network of hotlines for missing children & of Cross-Border Family Mediators, train key actors & help sustain & improve multidisciplinary cooperation
• Promote an integrated child protection approach in European & national policies / laws
• Measure impact & effectiveness of initiatives & programmes. Thematically, activities focus on runaways / forced ways, parental abductions & children in migration

Project name: Appropriate Community-Based Care and Empowering Support Services for Migrants Affected by Gender Based Violence

Brief Description: The fundamental aim of this project is to ensure that appropriate community based care and empowering support services are provided to migrant women in Belgium, UK and Spain. Many of these Migrant Women are victims of different kinds of sexual harassment due to their vulnerable economic situation.

To address the issue of Community-Based Care and Empowering Support Services for Migrants Affected by Gender Based Violence the project aims to:

– To train male and female GBV peer counsellors from the community

– To train key professionals to understand multiple forms of GBV in a multicultural context

– To raise awareness through development of digital tools

– To facilitate access to appropriate support and protection services

– To provide online support services in key ethnic minority languages

– To disseminate and sustain the results of the project at national and EU levels Activities

– Training of GBV peer counsellors and key professionals

– Outreach activities and online and face to face support services

– Evaluation of the process and impact Type and number of persons benefiting from the project

Project name: WAVE (Women against Violence Europe) European Network on Preventing Violence against Women and Children

Brief Description:  The aim of the project is the prevention of violence against women and children in the European Union.

To prevent violence against women and children in the European Union the following steps will be taken under the project:

• Build the capacity and sustainability of WAVE Network.
• Increase number of specialist women’s support services (WSS) and improve access by vulnerable groups;
• Facilitate multi-agency cooperation.
• Conduct research and European data collection on VAW and WSS; Improve cross-border cooperation and victims’ support; Raise awareness and disseminate knowledge of VAW and EU laws/policies Activities Advisory Board Meetings, Board Meetings, General Assembly, Capacity Building of WAVE Office, Fundraising & Mentoring, Improving Network Structure, Working Groups, Research on WSS, Data Collection Tool, WAVE Report, WAVE Statistics, Handbooks, Multidisciplinary Trainings, Training Institute, Campaign, Lobbying, Conference, Information Centre, Database, Dissemination, Study Visits, Webinars Beneficiaries, Victim support services, Law enforcement, Gender equality professionals, National/EU policymakers, Victims, Media and General Public Academia.

Project name: Call for proposals to protect and promote the rights of the child (CERV-2021-CHILD)

Brief Description:  The aim of the project call is to contribute to responding to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, by promoting ways to mainstream and embed children’s rights in the responses to this and any other emergency situations. The pandemic has caused widespread economic and social dislocation to various sections of society. The result has been various sections of society getting affected. Children are no exception to this around the world. Children belonging to the poorest sections of the society have suffered from various problems such as being pushed into menial child labour.

In order to contribute to responding to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic the project the following steps will be undertaken by the project:

(1) Including children in the decision making process about responses to the pandemic measures.

(2) Identifying, in cooperation with children, what activities and services have been mostly affected and

(3) Involving children in creating mechanisms to support their needs in order to overcome the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Project name: Call for proposals for action grants to support transnational projects to enhance the rights of persons suspected or accused of crime and the rights of victims of crime (JUST-2021-JACC)

Brief Description:  The aim of the project call is to facilitate effective and non-discriminatory access to justice for all, and effective redress, including by electronic means (e-justice), by promoting efficient civil, and criminal procedures, by promoting and supporting the rights of all victims of crime as well as the procedural rights of suspects and accused persons in criminal proceedings.

The call that will be operational throughout 2021 and 2022 will:

• to contribute to the effective and coherent application of EU criminal law in the area of the rights of persons suspected or accused of crime (procedural rights priority);

• to contribute to the effective and coherent application of EU criminal law in the area of the rights of persons suspected or accused of crime (procedural rights priority); (b) to contribute to the effective and coherent application of EU law in the area of the rights of victims of crime in line with the EU Strategy on victims’ rights (2020-2025) (victims’ rights priority).

Source for projects

https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-search;callCode=null;freeTextSearchKeyword=;matchWholeText=true;typeCodes=1,2;statusCodes=31094501,31094502,31094503;programmePeriod=null;programCcm2Id=null;programDivisionCode=null;focusAreaCode=null;destination=null;mission=null;geographicalZonesCode=null;programmeDivisionProspect=null;startDateLte=null;startDateGte=null;crossCuttingPriorityCode=null;cpvCode=null;performanceOfDelivery=null;sortQuery=sortStatus;orderBy=asc;onlyTenders=false;topicListKey=topicSearchTablePageState

By – Aniruddh Rajendran