17 JULY 1986-17 JULY 2001
The year 1985. Families of convicts and prisoners on remand did not want to forget the Military Coup, 12 September 1980 and the deaths and the persecutions of the Military Regime. Five years had been passed after military took the power and there were thousands of political prisoners in prisons. Trials were being held in military courts. Mothers and fathers were used to be either in the front of prisons or in the offices of their lawyers. So, the need for being organised was clear, especially, being organised in a way that would be able to act against torture and practices and conditions imposed in prisons. There were various meetings in Ankara and in İstanbul at that time. Mothers and fathers were visiting intellectuals, journalists and communicate their concerns. Many people had significant contribution to the founding process of the Human Rights Association. Debates and meetings continued in 1986. At the beginning of the summer in 1986, the name of "Human Rights Association" (IHD) was adopted. Human Rights Association was founded on 17 July 1986 by submitting the required documents to the Ministry of Interior. 98 people were the founder members of the Association…
Since then, thousands of people have been working for the protection and promotion of human rights at the Human Rights Association.
Human Rights Association propagates its positive approaches by organising panel discussions, symposiums, training programs on human rights; by publishing bulletins, books; identifies human rights situation in Turkey by publishing six-month and annual reports; reacts to the individual human rights violation cases and applies to the related authorities; provide help to the victims by guiding them; sends missions to do in-situ research on alleged human rights violations and reports its findings and makes them known to the authorities and public opinion.
In the 15-year history of the Human Rights Association, we have organised campaigns for the abolition of death penalty, for the freedom of expression, for peace, for general amnesty, for the abolition of State Security Courts, for the prevention of disappearances under custody. We have been against torture unconditionally. The IHD founded the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV), to be able to more efficient in our struggle against torture, to have an organisation that might have deterrent affect on the use of torture, to contribute for the punishment of the torturers and for the rehabilitation of torture survivors. We have developed our proposals for taking legal, administrative and educational measures for the prevention of torture.
We have been with workers, villagers, internally displaced Kurds, victims of earthquake. We have shared joys and sufferings of various sectors of society.
We have not limited our peace defense only being against war. Both, we have worked for ending the conflict atmosphere that was waged for 15 years in the South-east and we have been against all violence actions against civilians regardless of the perpetrator, and we also have been against all political actions that are not conducted by democratic ways and methods. At this moment, we have been in an effort for stopping deterioration into conflictual atmosphere again, for leaving violence means in the politics and for the founding and preserving a lasting peace. We believe that all problems of our country, including Kurdish question, can be solved on a democratic basis by using democratic means, by thinking and discussing on these questions. We, therefore, ask for freedom of expression, freedom of thought and of belief for everyone.
Political and legal structure of Turkey framed by the Constitution and laws of 12 September which is based on one ethnicity, one language, one religion and one opinion is in contradiction to the multiethnic, multilingual, multi-religious and multicultural structure of the Turkish society. Therefore, different languages and cultures need protection and promotion. The existence of different languages and cultures is the most significant richness of our country. Such a society can create its material needs for life better. Higher economic and social standards can not be gained without human rights and democracy. Human rights association, therefore, defends that there is a direct link between development and human rights and democracy.
Human Rights Association defends that human rights are universal, interrelated and integrated. In terms of economic and social rights, we defend the principle of social justice against income distribution injustice. We support workers' struggle for their right to collective contract. We stand by the unemployed and poor people. We draw attention to the requirements of a social state. We defend that the poverty prevents the enjoyment of human rights. We are against inequality both in Turkey and in the world. We are concerned that economic and social inequality in the world disadvantages the poorest countries. It is unacceptable that the world be a paradise for the capital and owners of capital and to be a hell for billions of people. It is possible to live in a more egalitarian world in freedom. Human Rights Association, together with the poor countries of the world, demands for that.
Human Rights Association has dealt with the problems in prisons since its foundation. It has tried to solve the problems through dialogue and without any deaths during hungers strikes. Human Rights Association in principle, has not encouraged, inspired or supported death fast actions, because such actions harm physical and moral health of people. However, we tried to understand people who ask for their rights through going on hunger strikes/death fasts. HRA defends that the emotion of asking for rights in this way should be ended. Therefore, the HRA has intensified its attention to the physical conditions of prisons objectively and defends that such actions would be ended if their physical conditions change positively. Any positive changes in the prisons' physical conditions and even to believe that their conditions will actually change have resulted in ending hunger strike and/or death fasts for the last fifteen years that the HRA's contributions to find a solution cannot be denied.
Human Rights Association, from the very beginning, has called for a dialogue to find a solution to the death fast and hunger strike which has been carried out since 20 October 2000 and has resulted in tens of deaths, hundreds of lasting health problems. In 1991, when Anti-terror Law was put into force, the HRA published a book and stated that Article 16 of Anti-terror Law foresees isolation and that those who will be kept in prisons defined in the Article 16 will be subject to isolation. We have been against F-type prisons for this reason. After the operation on 19 December 2000, F-type prisons were opened to use and the assessments made by the HRA ten years ago become true. All human rights organisations in the world, including CPT, have identified that the prisoners are under de facto isolation conditions. Today, the HRA continues to be against isolation regime and regards it as a method of torture.
Human Rights Association does not regard human rights problems of any country as internal problems. Therefore, the HRA joins the international human rights community against all human rights violations in the world. In this context, we have been in contact and solidarity with human rights defenders and organisations throughout the world.
Human Rights Association submits its views and assessments both to the governments of the Republic of Turkey and to inter-state organisations (vis. the UN, OSCE, Council of Europe, EU etc.) to which Turkey is a member country. HRA does not take into account the political stand of governments or the political parties taking place in the government to share its views with them. As a result of this approach, HRA observes the accession process (particularly in terms of Copenhagen criteria) to the EU since 10 December 1999, and identifies the requirements that Turkey is obliged to and required for complying with the Copenhagen political criteria. Our assessments are passed both to the Turkish government and EU organs.
We work for the creation of social, political and cultural conditions that are in line with the democratic standards and human dignity in our country. HRA is well aware that internal dynamics of a country, undoubtedly determine the realization of human rights and democratization, although the impacts of international community cannot be ignored. Therefore, the HRA underlines its trust to the dynamics of the society in Turkey.
As the present executives of the HRA, we would like to express our respect to our former members and executives who founded the HRA, who lost their lives, who were arrested, who were killed and to those who support us. Our 15-year march that was hard but full of dignity could only be realized by their self-sacrifice, by their contributions and by their invaluable efforts.
We would like to thank to the democratic public opinion in Turkey and to the international public opinion and human rights organisations for their support and solidarity.
Hüsnü Öndül
President of the Human Rights Association