Turkey must release the 11 women’s right defenders detained arbitrarily, cease the judicial harassment of these women, and conduct effective investigations into their allegations of inhuman and degrading treatment during arrest, police custody and pre-trial detention.
On 16 March 2022, Turkish law enforcement officials raided the houses of 24 women human rights defenders, arresting them in connection with their activism including their participation in peaceful demonstrations during International Women’s Day on 8 March. 13 women were released pending trial while Jale Okkan, Emine Kaya, Sakine Karadeniz, Fatma Kavmaz, Remziye Sızıcı, Gülşen Özer, Esma Efetürk, Feyme Filiz Buluttekin, Bahar Karakaş Uluğ, Songül Kapancı and Fatma Yıldızhan are currently in pre-trial detention.
Serious allegations have been made in relation to the inhuman and degrading treatment of the women human rights defenders during their arrest, police custody and pre-trial detention, including intrusive strip searches in the presence of male prison guards.
The letter sent by Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project, Association for Monitoring Equal Rights (Eşit Haklar için İzleme Derneği), Civil Rights Defenders, Foundation for Society and Legal Studies (Toplum ve Hukuk Araştırmaları Vakfı, TOHAV), Human Rights Agenda Association (İnsan Hakları Gündemi Derneği, İHGD), Life Memory Freedom Association (Yaşam Bellek Özgürlük Derneği), London Legal Group, Media and Law Studies Association (Medya ve Hukuk Çalışmaları Derneği, MLSA), Research Institute on Turkey (RIT) and Truth Justice Memory Center (Hakikat Adalet Hafıza Merkezi) provides background information on the recent backsliding of the rule of law and democracy in Turkey, as well as the shrinking protection of women’s rights protection and the targeting of Kurdish women human rights defenders (issues already raised in two previous letters - here and here). It outlines the human rights violations that took place in the context of the arrest and detention of the women human rights defenders, highlighting Turkey’s international law obligations in this respect.
Signatories of the joint urgent action letter request immediate attention from the UN Mandate Holders to whom the letter is addressed and ask the Mandate Holders to urge the Turkish Government, including but not limited to:
1. End the arbitrary and unlawful imprisonment and pre-trial detention of women’s rights activists Jale Okkan, Emine Kaya, Sakine Karadeniz, Fatma Kavmaz, Remziye Sızıcı, Gülşen Özer, Esma Efetürk, Feyme Filiz Buluttekin, Bahar Karakaş Uluğ, Songül Kapancı and Fatma Yıldızhan.
2. Accommodate effective investigations of the allegations of abuses and inhuman and/or degrading treatment in Diyarbakır Prison; and, where relevant, to secure the prosecution and punishment of the authorities involved.
3. Stop all forms of harassment, including the judicial harassment, against these individuals as well as against other women rights defenders, and allow the enjoyment of their right of freedom of expression, assembly and association within civil society in the advocacy of women’s rights without fear of intimidation or improper interference.
4. Make its anti-terrorism legislation compliant with international human rights standards and stop prosecuting the expression of critical opinions and right to assembly.
5. Reverse its decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention.
For the full text of the letter, see here.
