HUMAN RIGHTS

Latest News

• Imrali delegation demands immediate access to Öcalan 

  Imralı delegation demanded permission to visit Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, after speculative reports about his health emerged on social media.
• Demirtas’s storybook banned by Diyarbakir prison administration 

  A storybook by Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas was banned by Diyarbakir prison administration for “including encrypted messages.”
• HRW denounces torture in custody and abductions in Turkey 

  People in Turkey accused of links with terrorism or with the 2016 military coup attempt have been tortured in police custody, while others have been abducted, amidst growing evidence of detention abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
• AI urges Turkey to release human rights defenders 

  One hundred days after their wrongful arrest, Amnesty International is leading a global demand for the immediate and unconditional release of 11 prominent human rights defenders in Turkey.
• Sick prisoner: We are subjected to inhumane practices 

  Sick prisoner in Diyarbakır Type D Prison Hasan Aşa stated that they are subjected to “inhumane” practices.
• Êzidî refugees in Midyat living in prison conditions 

  The Êzidî refugees in Midyat are living in prison like conditions in the state-run AFAD (Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency) camp.
• Tortured inmates on hunger strike for 10 days 

  Three political prisoners in Kilis Type L Prison have been on a hunger strike for 10 days due to physical and psychological violence by the prison guards.
• Family: We want the body, we will take the execution to court 

  Footage had surfaced of HPG guerrilla Cuma Imen being captured alive in the Beytüşşebap district countryside in Şırnak and Imen was later executed by soldiers. Cuma Imen’s family demand their child’s body and say they will take the execution to court.
• Academic on hunger strike for 202 days taken into intensive care 

  Academic Nuriye Gülmen who is jailed since late May and is on the 202nd day of her hunger strike demanding to be reinstated, has been taken into intensive care last night.
• 42 people executed in Iraq in one day 

  Amnesty International reported that at least 42 people were executed in Iraq on Monday on “terrorism” charges.
• Öcalan’s lawyer: “We can only assume he is alive” 

  Kurdish People’s Leader Öcalan was last contacted by his brother on September 22, 2016 and hasn’t been heard from since. His lawyer İbrahim Bilmez said, “We can only assume he is alive.”
• Jalalian is banned from family visits by prison administration 

  In Iran, prisoner of conscience Zeinab Jalalian is banned from family visits after she protested against drug use in prison.
• Keskin: Without peace Turkey can't be democratized 

  Lawyer Eren Keskin stated that the UCAVs are the new tool for extrajudicial killings and said the state that was founded with the Ittihat mentality has been implementing the same policies since the genocide of 1915.
• UN to Turkey: “End rights violations” 

  States speaking in the UN Human Rights Sessions criticized Turkey harshly and urged the country to end rights violations at once.
• UN High Commissioner urges Turkey to stop attacks on human rights 

  United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein stated that institutions and individuals interested in the Kurdish issue are targeted by the government.
• Eren Keskin prosecuted by Turkey receives human rights award 

  Prominent human rights advocate Eren Keskin, who is facing 143 lawsuits and travel ban due to her position as a chief editor of the shut-down Özgür Gündem newspaper, has received a human rights award from Sweden.
• Hunger strike in Tekirdağ Prison 

  PKK, PAJK and MLKP prisoners in Tekirdağ Type F Prison No.2 have launched an alternate hunger strike.
• A prisoner commits suicide after abused by prison guards 

  A prisoner in Tarsus T Type Prison commit suicide after being abused by prison guards, a jailed journalist reported.
• Kurdish woman leader banned from all sports activities in prison 

  DBP (Democratic Regions' Party) Co-chair Sebahat Tuncel, is banned from all sports activities for 2 months after she went on a hunger strike in solidarity with Nuriye Gulmen and Semih Ozakça
• Half of the refugees drowned in the Mediterranean are children 

  Two years have passed since the death of Alan Kurdî. United Nations announced a death toll of over 8500 refugees in the Mediterranean Sea within the same time frame.
• Turkish prison guards cut a woman prisoner's hair with a knife 

  Turkish prison guards tortured a Kurdish woman prisoner’s hair with a knife in Tarsus T Type Prison, her family said.
• Prison guards forbade Kurdish language in prison 

  Prison guards forbade use of Kurdish language in prison and told prisoners that they can only speak the “official language.”
• Prisoner with heart condition denied treatment 

  Ömer Açar who has been awaiting trial in the Alanya Prison for two years has a heart condition, is denied treatment.
• Prison guards seized coloured pencils for security(!) concerns 

  A Turkish prison administration seized coloured pencils of kids who stay in prison with their mothers.
• Traces of chemical weapons on bodies in Malatya 

  İHD Malatya Branch Administrator Mehmet Tuncel stated that most of the bodies brought to the Malatya Institution of Forensic Medicine had traces of chemical weapons on them and the bodies were buried after they were kept in storage for several days.