Turkish human rights defenders at risk
Media Release, 27 Jan 2004

Nine executive board members of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) will have to appear before the Ankara Civil Court of First Instance 9 March 2004. They are charged with "having collected contributions without obtaining permission" and "co-operating with international organisations without permission".

The latest hearing in the same case took place 20 January and was adjourned to 9 March after 20 minutes. The case targets the HRFT of Turkey as such, thereby bringing the organisational operation in danger. The aim is to suspend the board members from duty.

HRFT is a partner organisation of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT). HRFT is a reliable and bona fide organisation that documents torture and rehabilitates torture victims. The organisation, its staff and board members have merely pointed out the fact that torture is widespread and systematic in Turkey. This is well documented in several reports that have been published in Turkey and abroad.

The case against the nine executive board members is yet another example of the harassment of the organisation as a whole and individual staff members through an endless row of court hearings.

Attempts to collect contributions without permission refers to persons contributing to the HRFT studies on the treatment of hunger strikers after release from prison. The international organisations with which the HRFT allegedly has co-operated without permission include Asma Jahangir, UN Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial, Summary And Arbitrary Executions, Johannes Swobada, Rapporteur for Turkey of the European Parliament and Council of Europe Commissioner of Human Rights.

The IRCT Ambassador, Dr Inge Genefke, and the IRCT Media Co-ordinator, Poul Struve Nielsen, monitored the court hearing in Ankara 20 January.

Other examples of the pressure applied to human rights defenders in Turkey are the cases against the Turkish psychiatrist Alp Ayan. He is obliged to appear in court hearings in three different cases against him over the next three months. When he appeared in the court in Izmir on the UN Human Rights Day, 10 December 2003, the case was adjourned to the 3 March 2004 after only 20 seconds.

These cases would probably never take place in any member-state of the European Union. Most of the cases are postponed time and time again and sent from one court instance to another, resulting only in fear and insecurity for the human rights defenders who are targets for the absurd charges.

The HRFT has played a major role domestically and internationally in the rehabilitation of torture victims and the documentation of torture. The Government of Turkey should make the best possible use of the capacity of the HRFT and collaborate with the organisation in order to achieve human rights standards that comply with the Copenhagen criteria by which any EU applicant country is measured.