Funds Required To Prevent Torture

Turkeys Human Rights Foundation calls on Justice Ministry to allocate resources for free counseling in wake of TTB decision to halt services due to lack of funding. The right to access to counsel means prevention of torture. Its the governments duty t

Ankara

Turkeys Human Rights Foundation (TIHV) has called on the Ministry of Justice to allocate necessary funds for obligatory free counseling offered through Bar Associations across the country after a recent decision by the Bar Associations Union of Turkey (TBB) to end all such services as of August 1 Tuesday due to the governments failure to meet payments.

"The right to access to counsel is a principle method of preventing torture warned a written statement issued by the TIHV executive board on Thursday. The existence of such an opportunity protects individuals against the threat and risk of torture To stop legal assistance will leave everyone deprived of their freedom, particularly children and women, unprotected against torture.

The TIHV statement said the Ministry of Justice had to correct the conditions that had led to the current situation, provide the necessary resource and take efficient measures to enhance the quality of the serve offered and give initiatives to the lawyers and bar associations offering it.

"Problems that have been continuing for a long time have brought the system to a bottleneck the statement said. This bottleneck could not be prevented even through the efforts and sacrifices of the lawyers who offered the service.

The TBB decision to halt free counseling services as of next Tuesday is expected to effect thousands of defendants including women and children prosecuted under the Criminal Procedures Code (CMK) who cannot afford to pay for their legal defense.

The TIHV statement explained that the scope of the obligatory free counsel service which started in 1992 had expanded with the June 2005 dated CMK and was a protective measure to protect individuals who have been apprehended against torture

It said it was the governments duty to take all legal, administrative, judicial and practical measures for the effective enforcement of free counsel and recalled the United Nations Convention to Prevent Torture adding that access to counsel is one of the rights that states should protect in order to prevent torture. (EZO/II/YE)