Turkey’s New Normal: Torture and Ill-Treatment

Turkey’s New Normal: Torture and Ill-Treatment

This pamphlet prepared by the Advocates of Silenced Turkey’s Right to Life Committee provides an overview of official reports published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the US Department’s State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.

Shortly after the failed coup the Turkish government declared a state of emergency which grants the government the power to investigate crimes committed during the attempted coup, including murder and causing bodily harm, and to hold those responsible to account. However, declaring a state of emergency does not give the government a carte blanche to suspend rights, and in particular there are rights and obligations from which there can be no derogation.

Under the state of emergency, the government passed two emergency decrees that removed crucial safeguards that can protect detainees from ill-treatment and torture. The prohibition of torture in international law is absolute and cannot be suspended even in times of war or national emergency. And yet, the emergency decrees remove crucial safeguards that protect detainees from ill-treatment and torture.