RIGHTS - Bianet

RIGHTS

Page 272

Association may be Closed before it Opens

The Governorship has demanded that the Human Rights Agenda Association is closed down. The associations head, lawyer Orhan K. Cengiz, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and asked him to take action.

29 April 2004 Yıldız Samer

383 Police Officers Charged with Torture

497 people have applied to the Izmir Bar Torture Prevention Group in the last 2 years saying they were tortured. According to a report, 67 of them were women, and 121 of them were under 18. 383 police are being charged with torture in 97 trials.

TURKEY: Reforms on Freedom of Expression

International PEN, alongside the International Publishers Association, is monitoring the trials against more than 40 such books and publications that have been brought to the courts during the past year.

CIJL Condemns Guilty Verdict for DEP Deputies

There was no presumption of innocence, the defense was not treated equally with the prosecution and the independence of the court is questionable at best, Besharaty-Movaed, legal advisor for the Centre for the independence of Judges and Lawyers said.

EU Calls for DEP MPs Immediate Release

EP ad hoc delegation chair Lagendijk: We are convinced that the State Security Court cannot guarantee the impartiality of the legal proceedings against Leyla Zana and her colleagues and therefore approve the Governments plan to abolish this body.

Four Kurdish Deputies Sentenced Again

A court convicted Zana and three former Kurdish deputies of having links to rebels in their retrial, ordering them to serve the remainder of their 15-year prison sentences.They have already served 10 years in prison, would be eligible for release in 2005.

Amnesty Protests Zanas Verdict

Although Amnesty International believes that the former deputies Zana, Dicle, Dogan and Sadak should have been released unconditionally, the retrial offered the opportunity to end the injustice of their continued imprisonment.

IHD Calls on Justice Ministry to Take Action

IHD said the reports given by Forensic Medical Institution to Wernicke Korsakoff patients werent in line with ethics. It called on the Ministry and prosecutors to take action against the reports, which lead to the patients being arrested arrested.

15 April 2004 Yıldız Samer

Honor and Freedom of Expression

Its ironic that these events coincide with discussions that Turkish Penal Code is discriminative against women, especially with the use of such words as honor, public moral, the order of family and society, public decency...

15 April 2004 Müge Gürsoy Sökmen

No Police During Medical Exam of Detainees

With a new project of the Forensic Medical Institution, police or gendarme wont be present in the room when the doctor is examining a detainee. They will send the reports in a sealed envelope to the prosecutor.

14 April 2004 Yıldız Samer

Onen: EU is Narrowing the Torture Definition

Representatives of the EU Commission say that the Human Rights Foundation has a very wide definition of torture. The Foundations head Onen says that there has been a general inclination in the world after 2001 to narrow down the definition of torture.

7 April 2004 Yıldız Samer

Ratify the Racism Protocol Urges IHD

The Human Rights Association published a statement on Newroz, which is also the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. IHD emphasized that Turkey had still not ratified the protocol -12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Directorate of Foundations Forgot the Case

Human Rights Foundation Executive Board are facing a trial and could be removed from their posts. The case file was removed when the plaintiffs lawyer did not attend the hearing without excuse. The case will be dropped if not handled within three months.

Human Rights Defenders Sentenced to Prison

The defendants were prosecuted for having attended the funeral of Ciftci in 1999. Dr. Ayan, was sentenced to 18 months and Kaya, together with other 28 defendants, to 18 months in prison.

17 February 2004

Musician Tunc Questioned for DEP Article

Musician Tunc, a writer for the daily Yeniden Ozgur Gundem, and chief editor Colak, are facing interrogations for an article they wrote and published on the trial of the former DEP lawmakers. They are accused with insulting justice decision.

30 January 2004 Erol Önderoğlu

12th September on Trial Acquitted

Ragip Zarakolu, owner of the Belge Publishing House was acquittted too. IPAs Alex.Krikorian and Kjell O. Jensen from Norvegian Pen attended to the hearing for solidarity.

3 December 2003 Şanar Yurdatapan

Death Fasts: 107 Died, One still Fasting

Three years have passed in the death fasts, which started on October 20, 2000. A total of 107 people died up to today.

24 October 2003 Hamza Aktan

Encouraging Torturers and Rapists

The Security Directorate lifted an administrative investigation about claims by DEHAP official Gunduz, who says she was raped by civilian police officers. The reason for the decision was that no security official is in the position of defendant.

24 October 2003

HRWs Free Expression Award to Yurdatapan

Sanar Yurdatapan stands for the principles of tolerance and free expression, which are fundamental to respect for all human rights, said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

16 October 2003

Singer Tunc Freed

Singer Tunc is released. The other artists, singer Rojin and stand-up showman Batki, who performed in the same festival, are sentenced in absentia. The first hearing of the trial opened against the artists will be held in August.

Intellectuals Call For a General Amnesty

121 Turkish intellectuals, of whom 12 of whom are women, including Yurdatapan, Kanar, Öndul, Kurkcu, Kocali, Kemal, Kaplan, Duran, Zarakolu called for peaceful discussion of Turkeys problems and legalization of political amnesty.

The Paranoia of a State Scared of Colors

The actors and actresses protested the seizure of a fly swatter used in a theatre play Gavara during a culture festival in Hakkari. The fly swatter was seized because of its colors.

24 June 2003 Özge Gözke

Campaign for Rape Victim Gunduz

OMCT is gravely concerned for the psychological and physical integrity of Ms. Gündüz and calls on the government of Turkey to initiate an immediate, impartial investigation into these allegations.

Police has Raided IHD Center and Branches

Police confiscated a number of confidential files and computers of Human Rights Association, some of which contain information on human rights violations perpetrated by the security forces.

Children Die in Land Mine Explosions

Human Rights Associations Diyarbakir branch revealed that 24 people died and 45 injured from landmine explosions and other leftover explosives between 2002-2003. Most of those who died were children.

Delikanlı Kadınlar

Molped reklamı ile ilk defa üstü örtük özel günler deşifre oldu. Deşifre olmakla da kalmadı, kapalı mekanlardan ya da gündelik hayatla mesafesi çizilmiş doğal manzaralardan beri gelip sokağa indi, ele güne sorulabilir oldu.

9 April 2003 Talin Suciyan

Ölmeye Yatmakta Cinsellik ve Olmayan Trajedi

Dar Zamanlar üçlemesinin ilk kitabı olan Ölmeye Yatmak, cinselliğini ulusal ideallerle bastırmak zorunda kalan Cumhuriyet kadınının sesini bugünlere taşıyan bir roman. Adalet Ağaoğlu, Cumhuriyet kadınının cinselliğinin izini sürüyor.

9 April 2003 Ann Conway,Çimen Günay

Kadınlar ve Yoksullukla Mücadele

Kadın ailenin barınma, beslenme, eğitim ve sağlık gereksinimlerini sağlayabilmek için yaşamı ucuza getirmenin yollarını ararken ağır fiziksel ve ruhsal bedeller ödeme pahasına yapabilirliklerini en son noktasına kadar zorluyor.

9 April 2003 Filiz Kardam

Turkey: Plans for Northern Iraq Raise Concern

HRW: Dont Repeat Civilian Killings and Displacement. If Turkish operations in Northern Iraq bear any resemblance to those in southeastern Turkey, we can expect to see a human rights disaster.

ECHR Rejects Turkeys Islamic Party Appeal

The European Court of Human Rights has delivered a judgment in the case of Refah Partisi (The Welfare Party) and others v. Turkey: There had been no violation of Article 11 (freedom of assembly and association) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

17 February 2003

AI: Solitary Confinement of Abdullah Ocalan

Amnesty welcomes the recent announcement by Mr. Elkatmis, chairman of the Turkish Parliamentary Human Rights Monitoring Committee, that he will seek a visit to examine the conditions under which Abdullah Ocalan is being held.

3 February 2003

Curbing Torture Top EU -Turkey Priority

Unfortunately, the legislation, which passed in December, was apparently mis-drafted and left restrictions on access to counsel in place. A further amendment repealing one paragraph of an article of a 1992 law is necessary.

30 January 2003