Rights abuses in Turkey have increased under state of emergency: NGOs

Turkey’s ongoing state of emergency violates basic human rights including the right to life, prominent human rights associations in the country have stated, as the European Convention on Human Rights marks its 69th year.

“Turkey has violated Article 15 of the Constitution, Article 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and Article 4 of the United Nations Civil Code. The current state of emergency regime has not been following any of the aforementioned rules,” read a joint declaration from the Human Rights Association and Turkey’s Human Rights Foundation issued on Dec. 9, referring to articles of the

Turkish Constitution that guarantee basic human rights and also regulate the conditions and framework of any state of emergency.
“The fatal thing is that basic and core laws have been blatantly violated,” it added.

The state of emergency was declared shortly after Turkey’s July 2016 coup attempt, and has been widely criticized for widespread violations of human rights and encouraging impunity.

“[The state of emergency rule] has exceeded the initial reason it was declared for and has reached a permanent state. Because decree laws have been declared on almost every subject, changing existing legislation … the effects of emergency rule will continue for years,” the statement read.

“International legal supervision has become futile with the Constitutional Court’s decision [to rule out state of emergency decrees from its jurisdiction], while international legal supervision has lost its centrality,” it added.

human rights groups stated that since 2016 around 300 laws has been altered with emergency rule decrees, 169,013 people have been taken into custody, and 50,510 have been arrested.

It also noted that 11 MPs are currently in jail, five former lawmakers have been stripped of their MP status, 113,440 public officers have been dismissed from their duties, and 22,474 people’s work permits have been cancelled.

Some 4,240 judges and prosecutors have been dismissed and only 166 of them have been reinstated to their posts, the statement read.

AKP marks Human Rights Day

Meanwhile, Turkish officials also marked the anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowing to “defend the rights of oppressed.”

“We will continue to be with all oppressed people and victims from Palestine to Syria and Asia to Africa,” Erdoğan said in a message on the occasion of global Human Rights Day.

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım also marked the day with a message, saying the international community had “failed to take common and effective measures against terrorism, racism, intolerance, discrimination, Islamophobia and xenophobia.”