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"In the 73rd year of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), we are defending our economic and social rights in the face of economic crisis, our right to life in COVID-19 pandemic conditions and our right to peace against war."
The Human Rights Association (İHD) and Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV-HRFT) held a joint press conference on the occasion of December 10-17 Human Rights Week yesterday (December 9).
Held a day before Human Rights Day today, the conference of "Human Rights Landscape and Rights Violations in Turkey in 2021" was marked by the increasing pressures aggravated by the pandemic:
"Turkey is going through one of the gravest economic crises of the last 40 years. The impoverisment, precarity and disorganization caused by the indebtment-based neoliberal economic policies that have been in effect for years have been aggravated further by the state of emergency practices. This picture has taken on a graver look with the COVID-19 outbreak.
The economic crisis, which has been in place in its most visible form since 2018, has become insurmountable with the onset of the pandemic. High costs of living, unemployment and poverty have affected women, children, migrants and refugees the most.
The İHD and TİHV-HRFT also shared their observations about how the political situation in Turkey has affected the law and legal sphere:
"The repressive policies of the political power holders have led to some firsts to happen in 2021 in terms of violations of rights.
The withdrawal from the İstanbul Convention, one of the most fundamental human rights conventions of the Council of Europe, the initiation of the infringement proceedings against Turkey by the decision of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on December 2, 2021 on the grounds of the failure to implement the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings on Osman Kavala and Selahattin Demirtaş and the greylisting of Turkey, which does not fulfill its obligations in the fight against illicit money and corruption, by the United Nations (UN) actually show the extent to which human rights violations have increased in Turkey.
Against this background, both rights organizations expressed their determination to struggle against this grave picture:
"As the ones whose raison d'etre is to achieve a country and world where violations of rights end and justice, peace and democracy are established, we will keep making violations of rights visible by documenting and reporting them despite all hardships, as we did in the past, thereby preventing these violations; we will keep struggling against impunity and fostering respect for human rights. We see, we don't stay silent, we struggle."
The TİHV-HRFT and İHD also shared the following information about the violations of rights life in Turkey:
"According to the data of the İHD and the TİHV-HRFT Documentation Unit/Center, in the first 11 months of 2021;
December 10 Human Rights DayHuman Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December — the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR is a milestone document that proclaims the inalienable rights which everyone is entitled to as a human being - regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Available in more than 500 languages, it is the most translated document in the world. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights entered into force in Turkey after it was published in the Official Gazette on May 27, 1949. |
(AS/SD)