Metin Bakkalcı1
As we do every year, we share with you the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey’s (HRFT) treatment and rehabilitation services for those who have been subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman and inhumane treatment and punishment through “Treatment and Rehabilitation Centers Report.”
As the first words of the 2023 report, we should state that this period of indescribable suffering and heavy destruction caused by the earthquakes that struck on February 6, 2023 and onwards has undoubtedly taken its place in our individual and collective memory as a period that will never be forgotten.
The HRFT was established in 1990 by 32 human rights defenders and the Human Rights Association (İHD) as a result of efforts within the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and the İHD.
Since its establishment in 1990, the HRFT has provided treatment and rehabili- tation services to more than 22,000 people who have been subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment, and is a human rights organization that is referred to by national and international community for its scientific studies on the identifi- cation, documentation and treatment of torture and other forms of ill-treatment. In addition, among the founding objectives of the HRFT is to carry out periodical and non-periodical publications and documentation, scientific research and training on the prevention of torture and other gross/serious human rights violations as defined in international human rights instruments and domestic law.
The services provided by the HRFT for addressing the physical, mental and social problems of torture survivors are carried out with an interdisciplinary approach by teams of hundreds of professionals and volunteers from various fields of expertise, particularly health professionals.
The HRFT continues to work on the treatment and rehabilitation of torture survivors in five treatment and rehabilitation centers located in Ankara, Diyarbakır, Istanbul, Izmir and Van, and one “reference center” in Cizre. In 2023, 781 torture survivors or relatives of torture survivors applied to all our centers. Comprehensive data and evaluations on the treatment and rehabilitation processes of our applicants are pre- sented in the following chapters of our report.
The HRFT has become a school in terms of documenting and reporting torture cas- es and contributing to the treatment and rehabilitation processes of torture survivors. The HRFT has been one of the essential actors in all the stages of the Istanbul Pro- tocol, including the creation of the Istanbul Protocol since the first meeting in 1996
when the idea of the Istanbul Protocol was put forward, as well as in the process of preparing the 2022 edition, taking absolute care to preserve its basic approach, scope and principles.
With the contract signed between the UN and the HRFT, the HRFT was granted the right to translate the 2022 edition of the Istanbul Protocol into Turkish, which does not qualify as an official translation, and just like the first edition of the Istanbul Pro- tocol 22 years ago, the Turkish translation and edition of the Istanbul Protocol was completed by the HRFT and shared with the public on June 10, 2023. We would like to take this opportunity to share that training programs will be launched based on the training modules to be updated based on the 2022 edition of the Istanbul Protocol.
Many survivors of torture and ill-treatment are also affected by other components of complex trauma. Recognizing that more than medical care is needed for as compre- hensive a reparation as possible, the HRFT has been working since 2004 to develop a more holistic and multidisciplinary program that also addresses the complex and ongoing problem of coping with social trauma.
The HRFT publishes bilingual (Turkish and English) daily and annual human rights reports, as well as specialized reports on specific violations and events, in order to regularly monitor and expose human rights violations in Turkey in an accurate, rapid and continuous manner, so as to prevent violations.
In an environment where there are attempts to turn the whole country into a place of torture, to turn human rights violations into a rule and the exercise of rights into an exception, and to destroy values by closing the civic space, the HRFT contributes to the fortification of public life on the basis of the constitutive role of human rights through new programs developed by drawing on its accumulated experience.
In this context, a comprehensive project/program is being carried out together with IHD, FIDH and OMCT since March 1, 2021. This project/programme aims to broad- en the grassroots of the human rights struggle in 6 regions of Turkey (Çukurova, Eastern Anatolia, Aegean, Southeastern, Central Anatolia and Marmara); to build bridges between local and national efforts; and to strengthen human rights actors at all levels, including the establishment of preventive and protective mechanisms.
Without a doubt, all these efforts are realized with the joint endeavors of the found- ing board members, board members and staff of the HRFT, who have been working selflessly and devotedly for years, as well as hundreds of sensitive people from different social segments and fields of expertise, especially health workers, lawyers and human rights defenders, who have come together for the same purpose all over the country.
Finally, we would like to express our gratitude once again to all our friends who have contributed to our efforts and who have not left us alone, and to all relevant organizations, especially the Human Rights Association and the Turkish Medical Association, which have supported our work since the beginning.
Ankara, 1 May 2024