Letter to Turkey’s Human Rights, Equality Institution: Abandon anti-LGBTI+ policies

Human rights

Click to read the article in Turkish

Criticized for its anti-LGBTI+ policies, the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey (TİHEK) wrote a letter to rights organizations, including the Ankara-based Kaos GL LGBTI+ association, and asked them to share their reports on human rights violations.

Responding to this request, Kaos GL has reminded the institution of its violations of LGBTI+s' human rights and recalled that a participatory process was not the case during the establishment of the TİHEK.

As reported by Yıldız Tar from Kaos GL, the association has argued that the law on the establishment of TİHEK is null and void by referring to the "common and general opinion among civil society that the formation process of the institution did not comply with universal standards".

The association has stressed that "there is no regulation-oriented change that would entail a move away from this common and general opinion", noting that "expecting the association to change its stance as if the conditions and motives had changed would mean denying itself".

Addressing the new head of TİHEK, Kaos GL has raised concerns that "in its 7-year history, TİHEK has been categorically rejecting addressing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and has been categorically disregarding the applications made by LGBTI+s or their legal representatives even though the Article 10 of the Constitution says that everyone is equal before the law and Turkey is a party to international and regional conventions that contain norms forbidding discrimination".

Underlining that "no hierarchical approach shall be the case when fundamental rights are concerned and it is a priori in the human rights law that rights are universal and a whole", it has argued that "by rejecting the applications of LGBTI+s and taking up an attitude that a differentiation can be the case in legal proceedings concerning the decisions the institution rejects, TİHEK itself is directly constructing the hierarchy in question".

Reference to past discriminatory statements

Kaos GL has said that it has been observing the efforts of the new TİHEK chair to polish the image of the institution, underlining that there is still no correction of what was done in the previous terms.

The association has recalled that the former head of TİHEK made a presentation to the Parliamentary Speaker's Office and defined homosexual relationships as "deviant relations against humans' disposition". Kaos GL has noted that during the term of office of the new TİHEK chair, no correction has been the case concerning these discriminatory remarks.

Referring to similar remarks of the former TİHEK chair, the association has reiterated that "there has been no action that shows that the attitude of the institution has changed" and underlined that the related statements are "highly fresh in the memory of the LGBTI+ community".

"Besides, the announcements, statements and reports of the institution construct a narrative as if LGBTI+s did not exist in this country," the letter of the Kaos GL to TİHEK has read further.

Concluding the letter, Kaos GL has attached its latest report on rights violations faced by LGBTI+s in Turkey in 2021 and expressed its "longing for a country where TİHEK becomes an institution of equality and struggle against discrimination in independent and universal standards". (EMK/SD)