‘Pandemic seen as an “opportunity” for rights violations’

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"Referring to the fundamental human rights once again on December 10 Human Rights Day, we remind the government that the struggle against the pandemic must be waged within this framework."

On the occasion of December 10 Human Rights Day, the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Central Council and Human Rights Branch have released a joint press statement with a specific focus on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and how it is managed in Turkey.

"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is remembered in the shadow of the COVID-19 outbreak, which has claimed the lives of 1 million 481 thousand 869 people across the world and 15 thousand 314 people in Turkey," the statement of the TTB has read.

'Data hidden for a long time'

Referring to the conditions that led to the outbreak and to the developments that unfolded in its aftermath, the TTB has stressed that "even though COVID-19 pandemic broke out as a viral outbreak, it needs to be considered a human-made catastrophe which emerged with the ecological crisis and led to grave consequences as a result of economic crisis."

"As has been experienced in the last year, it is impossible to struggle against a pandemic with a capitalist mindset of healthcare which considers health to be a commodity and abandons it to the rules of free market economy," the TTB statement has stressed further.

"In a world where protective healthcare services have been reduced to minimum and health has been sacrificed for the sake of market rules, the virus has managed to turn people's lives into a nightmare.

"On the other side, it is also seen that authoritarian regimes have used the outbreak as an opportunity to increase and legitimize their pressure.

"The major indication of this is the unscientific mentality and practices of the bans imposed by the circulars of the Ministry of Interior and implemented in the name of outbreak management. Instead of introducing practices based on epidemiological rules during the pandemic, individuals are deprived of their rights with measures and fines.

"The government has also violated people's right to obtain information about the pandemic, which is their most fundamental human right. For a long time, it hid the data about the pandemic, made an unscientific distinction between patient and case and voiced its unrealistic success story in the struggle against the pandemic. The perception of success created in society became a factor leading the outbreak to spread further.

"However, when the truths finally came to light, it has been seen that the right to obtain accurate information, one of the most fundamental human rights, has been violated."

'TTB targeted during pandemic'

Concluding its statement, the TTB has also addressed the hardships faced by both healthcare workers and the TTB itself:

"Healthcare workers have also been most affected during the outbreak. Trying to protect health workers from the pandemic and making efforts to inform the public, the Turkish Medical Association has been criminalized by the government in this period."

Indicating that "all organizations which have exposed the wrong practices of the government have been targeted during this process," the TTB has underlined that "for this reason, COVID-19 outbreak is no longer an outbreak, but has evolved into a human-made catastrophe due to the wrong mindset of pandemic management." (AS/SD)