The new Turkey
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2019 United States Department of State • Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention

20-mar-20

More from the report:

Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom from: a. Arbitrary Deprivation of Life and Other Unlawful or Politically Motivated Killings b. Disappearance c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Prison and Detention Center Conditions d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention Arrest Procedures and Treatment of Detainees e. Denial of Fair Public Trial Trial Procedures Political Prisoners and Detainees Politically Motivated Reprisal Against Individuals Located Outside the Country Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies Property Restitution f. Arbitrary or Unlawful Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence g. Abuses in Internal Conflict

Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties a. Freedom of Expression, Including for the Press Internet Freedom Academic Freedom and Cultural Events b. Freedoms of Peaceful Assembly and Association Freedom of Peaceful Assembly Freedom of Association c. Freedom of Religion: See the Department of State’s International Religious Freedom Report at https://www.state.gov/ religiousfreedomreport d. Freedom of Movement e. Internally Displaced Persons f. Protection of Refugees g. Stateless Persons

Section 3. Freedom to Participate in the Political Process

Section 4. Corruption and Lack of Transparency in Government

Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Abuses of Human Rights

Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons Women Children Anti-Semitism Trafficking in Persons: See the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report at https://www.state.gov/trafficking- in-persons-report Persons with Disabilities National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities Acts of Violence, Discrimination, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity HIV and AIDS Social Stigma Other Societal Violence or Discrimination

Section 7. Worker Rights a. Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining b. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor c. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment d. Discrimination with Respect to Employment and Occupation e. Acceptable Conditions of Work

The law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention and provides for the right of any person to challenge the lawfulness of arrest or detention in court, but numerous credible reports indicated the government did not always observe these requirements.

Human rights groups noted that, following the 2016 coup attempt, authorities continued to detain, arrest, and try hundreds of thousands of individuals for alleged ties to the Gulen movement or the PKK, often with questionable evidentiary standards and without the full due process guaranteed under law (see section 2.a.).

On the three-year anniversary of the July 15 coup attempt, the government announced that 540,000 individuals had been detained since the coup attempt on grounds of alleged affiliation or connection with the Gulen movement. The Ministry of Justice reported in September that since July 2016, the government had convicted nearly 30,000 individuals on charges related to the coup attempt or ties to the Gulen movement.

It had also opened more than 150,000 secret investigations related to the coup attempt. Approximately 70,000 cases were pending trial. A majority of the individuals were reportedly detained for alleged terror-related crimes, including membership in and propagandizing for the Gulen movement or the PKK. Domestic and international legal and human rights experts questioned the quality of evidence presented by prosecutors in such cases, criticized the judicial process, asserted that the judiciary lacked impartiality, and said defendants were sometimes denied access to the evidence underlying the accusations against them (see section 1.e., Trial Procedures).

The courts in some cases applied the law unevenly, with legal critics and rights activists asserting court and prosecutor decisions were sometimes subject to executive interference. In May an Ankara court acquitted a high-ranking member of the armed forces after he was arrested for alleged ties to the Gulen movement. In its decision, the court justified the acquittal because the burden of proof was not met. Critics pointed out that earlier in the year, authorities arrested 39 others on similar charges who were not acquitted.

The government acknowledged problems in the judicial sector and in October launched a Judicial Reform Strategy designed to strengthen the independence of the judiciary while fostering more transparency, efficiency, and uniformity in legal procedures.

Source: https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/
2020/03/TURKEY-2019-HUMAN-RIGHTS-REPORT.pdf