The Council of Forensic Medicine has a structure that is considered by the Ministry of Justice only to appoint bureaucrat, subsequently the Council has interpreted the science oriented criticisms as the political oriented criticisms and has not given required attention to these criticisms.
It should be underlined that such an evaluation is not limited with recent agenda issue of “sick and disabled arrested/sentenced people” who are not treated or released.
The issue of sick and disabled arrested/sentenced people is of vital importance and should be solved immediately. However the problem of the Council of Forensic Medicine is more comprehensive.
Today we would like to mention the following points shortly;
– the Council of Forensic Medicine harms the independency and impartiality aspects of the judiciary and right to fair trial,
– It is like a functionless institution because of the problems in its structure and workload,
– “the scientific competency hierarchy” that has been created for the existence of the council is completely unrealistic,
– The State Supervisory Council, which has been stimulated by the Presidency, has to evaluate some points.
1- The Council of Forensic Medicine, which is the biggest expert institution in this field in Turkey, has lost its reliability before the whole society.
2- The reports, which were prepared without getting support from universities, scientists and scientific studies that are main source for the forensic science are unacceptable in terms of scientific and legal aspects.
3- The independent control on the competency of the experts and experts organization is important for respectability of the law and the society’s reliance. The current situation of the Council of Forensic Medicine harms the society’s reliance on it.
4- This situation is not sustainable. The organization of the Council of Forensic Medicine should be revised immediately and be restructured in accordance with scientific recommendations and be autonomous and independent.
In order to have an effective, productive and credible control, the process of the State Supervisory Council must be open to participation and contributions of the relevant professional organizations. As organizations, particularly Turkish Medical Association or TTB and and the Society of Forensic Medicine Specialists or ATUD, in this field we would like to state that we have long experience and personnel capacity subsequently we are ready to participate to the control process.
TURKISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (TTB)
THE TRADE UNION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES (SES)
THE SOCIETY OF FORENSIC MEDICINE SPECIALISTS (ATUD)
HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION OF TURKEY (HRFT)
HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION (IHD)
CONTEMPORARY LAWYERS’ ASSOCIATION (CHD)