Perpetrators of violations of rights against LGBTI+s: Public authorities

"Human rights"  (Credit: Kaos GL)

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Kaos GL Association has published its 2020 Report of Human Rights of LGBTI+s in Turkey. The cases related to the practices that prevent LGBTI+s from accessing human rights and violation of rights have been documented in the report which has been prepared by Yasemin Öz.

As reported by Selma Koçak from Kaos GL, the report has shown that violation of rights against LGBTI+s increasingly went on in 2020 as well.

While violation of rights committed by public authorities and legislators reportedly increased in number, there has not been any considerable development about benefiting from the systems which aim to compensate LGBTI+s for being violated and accessing justice.

In the report, which has documented the systematic discriminatory discourse of the public authorities directly setting the tone of violation of rights, it is said, "Lack of adequate policies in the field of human rights of LGBTI+s, goes on to cause vital consequences and grave human rights violations. Therefore, protective legal modification is a necessity in the field."

Discrimination: A systematic government policy

Effects of the pandemic have also been described at the conclusion of the report. The report has briefly said:

"2020, in which all the collective activities, including the general meetings of civil society, were postponed, forced the world to think of a new way of life. However, the context of our report indicates that nothing has changed except the increasing number of violations of rights.

An old and ultra-familiar discourse, targeting LGBTI+s as the reason for the pandemic, was put in circulation all around the world and in Turkey as well without delay. LGBTI+s were targeted as the reason of pandemic by high-level officers up to the President of Religious Affairs, whose status was determined by Constitutional Law and the discriminatory discourses against LGBTI+s, developed by the public authorities and politicians, have become a systematic government policy in 2020."

The fact that Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs directly targeted the LGBTI+ community with religious references in the years 2019 and 2020 has been interpreted in the Kaos GL report as "an ominous political change that would imperil the LGBTI+s much more".

Details from the report

The report covers a total of 82 cases in the field of LGBTI+'s human rights in 2020 in line with the applications and information received by the judiciary, press or directly by the Kaos GL Association.

There is often more than one violation in these cases. The total number of violations/cases addressed in the report is 103.

The report seeks to address all developments in the field of LGBTI+s human rights in 2020 by including the cases evolved into a positive process where justice has been served. The distribution of cases and violations according to their relevant categorization is as follows:

"Five hate murders, thirteen hate crimes, twelve hate speech cases, three cases of violation of the prohibition of torture and maltreatment, forty cases on violations of human freedom and security, two cases regarding the violation of the right to private life, fifteen cases of violation of freedom of expression, one case of violation of the right to assembly and demonstration, two cases concerning discrimination in working life, one case related to the discrimination in the field of education, nine cases related to the freedom of residence and travel – the right to property, two cases of discrimination in the field of healthcare, two cases of discrimination related to access to goods and services."

Hate speech and hate crimes

In categories where the number of violations is very high, such as hate speech and hate crimes, a limited number of violations that could reflect the overall situation has been addressed in the report.

The total number of violations in these categories is not included in the Human Rights Report. The total number of hate crimes and current status will be announced in the Hate Crimes Report, which will be published in the coming days. As for hate speech, the data from the association's Media Monitoring Report is also included in the report as a summary. (EMK/SD)