FOREWORD
Another year has passed during which we have tried to intervene in the struggle for human rights. We have published the activities of the headquarters of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) and its Treatment and Rehabilitation Centres in various reports throughout the year. Whether these activities are sufficient compared to the gravity of the problems can be discussed. However, with the help of our friends who support the HRFT activities and especially the HRFT staff who not only work in the field of human rights but make it their daily struggle to prevent human rights violations, we continue to look forward to the future.
As far as human rights are concerned, we are in a difficult period with hope on one side and concerns on the other. Not only in Turkey, but all over the whole world we encounter attitudes of total lack of respect for human rights. While we are working for the promotion and protection of human rights in a world where human rights are much talked about but only insufficiently respected and while we are trying to overcome almost insurmountable obstacles, what we do to raise awareness on human rights issues may often seem insufficient.
We spent a year of hope because for the first time in Turkey we met people outside our immediate environment in order to promote the idea that everybody in our society shares a part of responsibility in the effective fight against torture and to take some first steps for the fulfillment of this responsibility. Since the publication of the Istanbul Protocol 10 years ago we have carried out many the Istanbul Protocol trainings together with many friends and human rights activists from different disciplines. However, the majority of the 3,476 medical doctors whom we met this time were part of a group that we had almost never had the opportunity to meet before and carrying quite different concerns. 83 % of this group of medical doctors considered that it is acceptable to examine a patient in the presence of a policeman, 62 % considered that a psychiatric examination is not to be included in the documentation of torture and 31 % considered that under certain circumstances torture could be legitimated. However, today there are many hospitals that have separate and more appropriate examinations rooms and there is a separate forensic medical emergency duty apart from a general medical emergency duty where doctors aware of the absolute prohibition of torture are trying to do their best for an effective documentation of torture. Some of the medical doctors whom we never had the opportunity to meet before, have now for the first time come to the HRFT, obtain our publications and ask how they can contribute to our work.
Yet, there are quite many contradictions. These medical doctors are facing investigations; some have even been taken into custody recently. They have never been in such a situation before, but for those who have been involved in the human rights struggle for a long time and know these kinds of situations the contradictions have come to a sharper point. This year we witnessed how many of our friends and colleagues have been target and taken into custody because of their involvement in the human rights struggle. Members of the executive boards of the Human Rights Association’s (HRA) headquarters and branches have been arrested and continue to be arrested. The applicant records of the HRA have been seized. The freedom of thought and expression continues to be violated and those daring to think, speak and write continue to be investigated and tried. Yet, those who rarely ever face any investigation or trial are the torturers themselves as impunity continues to be the norm. While medical doctors see and identify traces of torture and ill-treatment, decisions of non-prosecution continue to be taken because the wounds only require simple medical treatment. As if this was not enough, the victims often face investigations and trial for having resisted or attacked a police officer on duty. To explain the human rights violations that our children are being subjected to an entire separate report would be necessary. You will read in our report that this year we had to take far more children applicants into our programmes than we had initially foreseen. Unfortunately, children continue to be prosecuted in heavy penal courts and are considered to be members of illegal organisations because of allegedly having stone marks on their hands. Slingshots are also considered as the weapons of an organised fight. In the face of such serious human rights violations there seems to be no time left for a thorough examination of the prison conditions.
While all of these serious human rights violations were taking place during the discussions on the so-called democratic opening, shortly after these discussions thousands of people were arrested including members of the local administration of the Kurdish regions. Although issues such as the constitutional debates, changes in the Anti-Terrorism Law or the establishment of a National Human Rights Institution would need the input from all parts of society and a widespread debate, public discussions and meetings lack sincerity and therefore end without any results and in the end the fight about political rants destroys any hope for a just solution. Rising tensions are fomenting conflicts within society.
We know that this lack of sincerity exists everywhere. In Spain, a judge, Baltasar Garzón is threatened with suspension from office for 20 years for attempting to investigate the disappearance of 114,000 people during the Francoist regime. In Indonesia a group a people carrying the flag of Papua was arrested for rebelling. While in Turkey the TEKEL workers were struggling for better working conditions, workers in the Iranian sugar industry, the Russian water industry, the Pakistani hotel industry and the British airway industry are also struggling for better working conditions and wages, are being arrested and put on trial.
The struggle for human rights is a hard struggle. The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey has been involved in this struggle for the past 20 years and provided a range of examples in this field on the national and international level. Yet, the current situation forces us to make urgent calls on the public and authorities more often. In such a situation we need to stand united and continue with our struggle for the protection of human rights.
Remembering the past 20 years and that the darkest moment of the night is the moment just before dawn; we hope to watch the sunrise together…