HUMAN RIGHTS

Latest News

• Hundreds of children in Turkish jails 

  According to the Ministry of Justice there were 624 children under 6 in Turkish jails by November 2017
• Dozens associations on hunger strike in Europe 

  The protest action is organized to underline the attitude of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, which has been silent about the isolation of Kurdish leader Ocalan
• Asrın Law Office: “CPT should visit Imrali as well” 

  Asrın Law Office issued a statement on the CPT’s visit to Turkey and said, “The Imrali Prison should be visited and the conditions there should be observed in person to be put into a report.”
• CPT discusses Öcalan’s situation during ad hoc visit to Turkey 

  A delegation of the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) carried out an ad hoc visit to Turkey from 4 to 13 April 2018.
• HDP’S Irgat: In Imrali we are witnessing torture 

  HDP MP Mizgin Irgat noted that it was unacceptable for the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) to publish the Imrali report 2 years after their visit.
• Heavy prison conditions for political prisoners in Urmia 

  The central prison of Urmia in eastern Kurdistan has severe prison conditions for political prisoners.
• HRW: Turkish-allied groups loot people’s property in Afrin 

  Human Rights Watch has documented that armed groups working with Turkish forces are looting and destroying civilian property in the city of Afrin and surrounding villages, exacerbating the plight of civilians there.
• Human rights violations in Turkey in 2017 

  After the lifting of martial law in 1987 for the first time Turkey witnessed the State of Emergency (OHAL) for the whole year.
• Turkish company bans construction workers from speaking Kurdish 

  A Turkish construction company has banned its workers from speaking Kurdish at the construction site.
• Turkey sentences journalists Keskin and Capan to jail terms 

  A Turkish court sentenced journalists Eren Keskin and Reyhan Capan to 7.5 years in prison for contempt of the state by the articles published in Ozgur Gundem newspaper.
• Beştaş: The CPT is as much responsible as the torturers in Imralı 

  HDP’s Meral Danış Beştaş stressed that the CPT issuing a statement on the aggravated isolation in Imrali after 2 years means that the institution accepts the continuation of the torture. Beştaş demanded the way to Imrali be opened at once.
• KCK slams CPT over its report on Imrali 

  "Publishing a report about a visit two years ago doesn’t comply with the seriousness of CPT especially when considering that Turkey is administrated under emergency rule and heaviest oppressive conditions," KCK said.
• Prisoners on hunger strike for 10 days in Mersin 

  Political prisoners in T-Prison of Tarsus have been on hunger strike for ten days to protest against the prison conditions.
• HDP’s Önder: The CPT report is not up to date, visit Imrali 

  Imrali Delegation Spokesperson Sırrı Süreyya Önder pointed out the CPT report and said: “What matters in Imrali is not so much the physical conditions but the isolation. Mr. Öcalan must be met with urgently.”
• 16 members of Alawite association arrested in Turkey 

  Turkey arrested 16 members of Pir Sultan Abdal Culture Association (PSAKD), an organization of Alawite community in Turkey.
• HRW denounces mass deportations of Syrians in Turkey 

  Turkish security forces have routinely intercepted hundreds, and at times thousands, of asylum seekers at the Turkey-Syria border since at least December 2017 and summarily deported them to the war-ravaged Idlib governorate in Syria, HRW said.
• Documents of Erdoğan’s massacre displayed in Brussels 

  Images and documents of the crimes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan committed in Afrin and Rojava are being displayed in front of the European Parliament in Brussels.
• CPT publishes report on Imralı Prison 

  The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has published a report on its April 2016 visit to the high-security prison on the island of Imralı in Turkey, where Abdullah Öcalan and three other prisoners are being held.
• UN criticizes Turkey for rights violations under emergency rule 

  Routine extensions of the state of emergency in Turkey have led to profound human rights violations against hundreds of thousands of people, United Nations Human Rights Office said in its 2017 report on Turkey.
• Families’ 67th appeal for a visit to Imralı rejected 

  The appeal to visit their relatives by the families of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan and other prisoners in Imrali has been rejected for the 67th time.
• UN: Hundreds of thousands of civilians are at risk in Afrin 

  United Nations Human Rights Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani stated that hundreds of thousands of civilians are at risk in Afrin at the moment, including those recently displaced from other areas captured by Turkish-led forces.
• Peoples’ Tribunal on Turkey starts in Paris 

  A session of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Turkish war crimes against Kurdish people has started in Paris’ Bourse du Travail.
• A third of HDP members detained over last three years 

  About a third of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) members have been detained by Turkish police since July 2015, Mesopotamia News Agency reported.
• Prisoner with brain cancer put in solitary confinement in Turkey 

  A Kurdish prisoner, who is suffering from brain cancer, is kept under solitary confinement in Sincan F Type Prison in Turkey.
• Current situation in Turkish prisons: Torture and death 

  While disciplinary punishments are extended in the prison of Elazığ, Northern Kurdistan, messages about maltreatment come from the prison of Tarsus. In Adana, a prisoner died because he was denied his medication.