We Protect Human Dignity, We Stand against Torture
25 June 2023
26 June, designated as the “International Day in Support of Victims of Torture,” is a special and significant day for human rights defenders all over the world.
The United Nations (UN) Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) was adopted on 26 June 1987. And the UN proclaimed June 26 the “International Day in Support of Victims of Torture” in 1997.
The UNCAT absolutely prohibits torture to protect the inherent dignity and value of the human person. Such an absolute prohibition, which is a common achievement of the human family and constitutes one of the most fundamental rules of modern human rights law, is jus cogens as per the hierarchy of norms, in other words, it qualifies as a peremptory norm. There can, therefore, be no exceptions to this rule. Thus, Article 2 § 2 of the UNCAT prescribes: “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.”
Yet torture is still being committed in many countries in the world by states against societies as an instrument of inhuman punishment and intimidation despite such an open and clear definition.
Turkey ratified the UNCAT in 1988 and prohibited torture in its Constitution and the Turkish Penal Code (TPC). Torture, however, has maintained its existence as a systematic state practice not only during periods of military coup d’états but throughout the history of the republic. Moreover, today the whole country has virtually become a site of torture because the current political power’s repressive mode of governance and control has rendered all the issues of the country, ranging from economics to public health, a security problem. The appended data reveal the fact that torture remains the most prominent human rights problem in Turkey despite its absolute prohibition and qualification as a crime against humanity. These data indicate that the statement “Zero tolerance to torture” is nothing but historical and factual discursive propaganda.
Acts of torture and ill-treatment have been maintained with all their severity and gravity in official custodial places, in proportion to the increasing authoritarianism of the political power, and have been brought about by the violation of procedural guarantees, long-term custody periods, dysfunctional monitoring and prevention mechanisms or the sheer absence of independent monitoring and prevention mechanisms and the like through such reasons as law, rule and norm control evasion; arbitrariness and willful negligence that have become quite common at various levels of the state. As a matter of fact, in 2022, the HRFT received the highest number of applications from torture survivors and their relatives in its 32-year history.
Torture and other forms of ill-treatment in the streets, outdoors during the intervention of the law enforcement into peaceful assemblies and protests or at spaces like houses and offices, in other words, in non-official custodial and extra-custodial places, have also reached unprecedented levels. Such violence by the law enforcement is against the rules, not controlled, not punished, ignored and even encouraged by the political power and it goes way beyond the right to use force defined in universal law and domestic laws while becoming a part of everyday life.
Particularly Saturday Mothers/People women and the LGBTI+, workers, defenders of life, members and executives of political parties, members and executives professional organizations and human rights defenders peacefully exercising their right to freedom of assembly and protest, which forms the basis of a democratic society and guaranteed by the Constitution itself, have been subjected to such inhuman and disgraceful violence by the law enforcement.
Women, the LGBTI+, workers, defenders of life, members and executives of political parties, members and executives of professional organizations, human rights defenders, refugees and asylum seekers, especially Saturday Mothers/People, who wanted to exercise their freedom of assembly, which is the basis of a democratic society and guaranteed by the Constitution, were subjected to this cruel law enforcement violence throughout the year.
Saturday Mothers/People have been subjected to police intervention, torture and other forms of ill-treatment (isolation by surrounding them with shields, reverse handcuffing, etc.) every week since 8 March 2023, despite the clear judgment of the Constitutional Court, which accepted the police intervention/violence they were subjected to during their 700th week vigil as “violation of the right to assembly.”
Likewise, many meetings, marches and events organized within the scope of Pride Month were banned by the local administrative authorities and/or prevented by law enforcement forces throughout the country. Especially as a result of the intervention of law enforcement forces, many people were subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment and were taken into custody.
The recurrent increase in enforced disappearance/abduction cases following 2016 when the state of emergency was declared, which is one of the most disgraceful human rights violations of our recent history qualifying as a crime against humanity, is extremely alarming as well. The fate and whereabouts of Yusuf Bilge Tunç has been unknown since 6 August 2019.
Prisons have always been spaces where acts of torture and other forms of ill-treatment have been committed intensively. Especially in the period starting with Turkey’s re-entry into a climate of conflict in July 2015, followed by the suppression of the military coup attempt and the subsequent declaration of the state of emergency, there has been a significant increase in acts of torture and ill-treatment against detainees and convicts in prisons. As stated in the reports of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), the unacceptable isolation in İmralı Prison causes serious concerns in society.
This alarming reality, which becomes visible with the appended data, has also been reflected in reports drawn up by international prevention mechanisms and human rights bodies. Yet, the political power unwilling to limit itself with any rule and norm, particularly by the Constitution, has not been heeding international mechanisms along with their criticism and warnings and failed to take steps to prevent torture. It, on the contrary, has been attempting to “guarantee” impunity by introducing regulations and amendments in legislation that are against the absolute nature of prohibition of torture and hoping to curb the struggle against torture by threats against human rights defenders who have been striving to render these violations visible.
It is, nevertheless, possible to stop torture because it is committed at the hands of humans despite such bleak truth.
The obligation to prevent/stop torture falls firstly on states. We, therefore, remind the political power of the following minimum demands once again that we have been patiently and persistently voicing for years as part of our duty as human rights defenders and ask them to be put in effect without delay:
- The main reason why acts of torture are committed at such a high level in our country is the presence of a very serious culture of impunity that is in non-compliance with the absolute prohibition of torture. Policies of impunity that the authorities attempt to turn into mundane rules, above all, should be put to an end.
- Authorities at all levels should renounce discourse praising and encouraging torture and torturers; acts of torture should be condemned publicly in a crystal-clear manner in line with recommendations by international mechanisms.
- Procedural guarantees for custody/detention conditions should be implemented without any reserve.
- Custody periods should be shortened.
- The current Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey (TİHEK) should be abolished, and a thoroughly independent national prevention mechanism should be established in compliance with the provisions of the OPCAT and Paris Principles.
- The Law Enforcement Supervisory Commission should be made impartial and independent.
- Documentation and reporting of torture should be conducted in accordance with the principles set forth in the İstanbul Protocol which is a UN document.
- Torture allegations should be investigated in a rapid, effective, and independent way; they should be inquired by independent boards; international ethical and legal rules should be observed at each stage of legal jurisdiction processes.
- Prisons should be made available to monitoring works by human rights and legal organizations.
- All reports by CPT should be disclosed and the recommendations therein should be complied with.
We, however, would like to remind all that protecting human dignity and preventing torture is at the same time the responsibility of the whole society. To be human beings and citizens, to protect the common bond that makes us a society we must see the suffering torture brings about and we have to enhance solidarity.
As organizations aiming to achieve a torture-free Turkey and a torture-free world, we will continue to stand by torture survivors under all circumstances, to document and report the torture they have been subjected to, to support their physical and mental reparation processes, to help them access justice, and to fight against impunity so that the pain they have suffered is never repeated, despite all efforts to cover up, intimidate and silence them.
We do see, we do speak up, we do fight…
Human dignity will triumph over torture…
A world without torture is possible!
Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT)
Human Rights Association (İHD)
Turkish Medical Association (TMA) Human Rights Committee
Appendix: Torture in Its Various Dimensions in Turkey as of 26 June 2023: