Study: Kurds in Türkiye think human rights situation worse than 90s

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Tahir Elçi Human Rights Foundation and Rawest, a pollster focusing on the country's Kurdish regions announced the results of their joint study, "Human Rights Perception of Kurds."

The results of the study show that the Kurds living in different parts of Türkiye believe that mostly Kurds, women, children and poor are subjected to violations of human rights while the mostly violated right is "the right to live."

The common study has been carried out through face to face meetings with 1,363 people in Istanbul, İzmir, Adana, Mersin, Diyarbakır, Mardin, Van and Urfa.

The study revealed that the participants aged over 30 express that the recent period and 90's are similar with respect to the situation of human rights in Türkiye. The average of the participants' scores has been 3,84 for today while 3,94 for 90s. This shows that the weight attached to human rights has dropped behind that in the 90's.

What comes to your mind when you hear "human rights?"

The interviewees were first asked the question: "What comes to your mind when you hear the expression "human rights?" 33 percent of the interviewees responded saying "justice," 24 percent "rights and freedoms," and 10 percent "law." Those saying "the right to live" and "welfare" were 5 percent each and those saying "women's rights" and "education" were 4 percent each.

"Rights are not given by state, they exist naturally"

Every 9 out of 10 participants indicated that humans had rights originating from being human and more than 83 percent believed that "a state is not entitled to grant rights, that the rights existed naturally."

Human rights are being violated

79 percent of the interviewers answered the question on if human rights were being violated in Türkiye, saying "yes." 8 percent said "no" while 13 percent said they did not have an idea.

Right to life being violated in Türkiye

72 percent said that the right to live was the most important human right. "Freedom of expression" "right to live" and "women's rights" were the three mostly violated rights, with 63, 60 and 53 percent of the interviewees indicating them as the mostly violated human right respectively.

"Kurds and women subjected to violations of rights most"

The researchers also asked about the groups that are mostly subjected to violation of human rights. 67 percent responded saying the women, 61 percent the Kurds, 19 percent the poor, another 19 percent the children and 13 percent saying that the unemployed were mostly subjected to violation of human rights.

Ethnic identity most important cause for discrimination

According to the participants "ethnic identity" is one of the most important reasons for being subjected to discrimination. 50 percent of the interviewers said that ethnic identity was a reason for discrimination, while those saying that gender was a reason for discrimination followed next with 15 percent and those saying that religion and religious sect followed next, with 7 and 6 percent respectively.
39 percent of the participants said that they had been discriminated against for some reason in their lives until now. 52 percent of those who said that they had been subjected to discrimination also said that they were HDP voters.

The state was mentioned as the institution causing human rights violations the most. Participants listed the men, the media and the companies next for causing most human rights violations. The family was also listed among the institutions violating rights.

Human rights not getting better

73 percent of the participants thought that the situation of human rights got worse in Türkiye in the last 10 years. The ratio of those who thought that human rights got better in this period was only 9 percent. 15 percent of the interviewers thought that the situation of human rights was the same in the last ten years.

"Lifting parliamentary immunity a violation"

73 percent of the participants agreed that "all are equal before the law independent from gender, language, religion, political view, ethnic identity," while 7 percent disagreed.

Those disagreed with the statement "The legal system in Türkiye is treating everyone equally" was 51 percent.

72 percent agreed with the statement "that the cases not being concluded for a long period of time is a violation of rights."

67 percent agreed that "that torture to prisoners was a violation of human rights no matter what their crimes are."

The idea that "lifting parliamentary immunity is a rights violation" was accepted by 58 percent.

57 percent agreed with the statement that "the legal processes concerning unidentified murders in 1990's are not being carried out fairly."

Again 61 percent of the participants did not find find appointment of trustees to the municipalities just.

"Education language should be dual"

76 percent agreed that "men and women should be equal in all areas."

70 percent disagreed that "men should receive a higher wage than women even when the do the same job," while 44 percent disagreed that "the state should shut down associations of homosexuals."

While 72 percent agreed that "it is a violation of child rights that children younger than 16 should work," 56 percent agreed that "it is a violation of human rights that the children have to read the national oath."

65 percent agreed that "it is a violation of rights that the Turkish children in Germany cannot receive education in Turkish," w,hile again 65 percent agreed that "it is a violation of rights that the Kurdish children in Türkiye cannot receive education in Kurdish."

62 percent of the participants in Kurdish majority cities agreed that "the education language should be dual, both Turkish and the mother tongue, while 45 percent agreed with this in the west provinces." (RT/PE/VK)