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Turkish Lawyers detained

AED Statement concerning the detention of the lawyers Ramazan Demir, İrfan Arasan, Ayşe Acinikli, Hüseyin Boğatekin, Şefik Çelik, Adem Çalışçı, Ayşe Başar, Tamer Doğan and Mustafa Ruzgar (16th of March 2016, Istanbul) and previously the detention of the “Academics for peace”.

Amongst the different cases related to human rights that AED/EDL (Avocats Européens Démocrates/Europeans Democratic Lawyers) follows, the situation in Turkey appears to be especially worrisome.

In the early morning of 16th of March 2016, the police broke into the private homes of several lawyers/attorneys in Istanbul. 8 of them, members of the ÖHD (Özgürlükçü Hukukçular Derneği – Association of Lawyers for Freedom), and one of them, also member of ÇHD (Çağdaş Hukukçular Derneği – Progressive Lawyers Association) have been arrested on charges of terrorism: Ramazan Demir, İrfan Arasan, Ayşe Acinikli, Hüseyin Boğatekin, Şefik Çelik, Adem Çalışçı, Ayşe Başar, Tamer Doğan were taken into custody. Later, yet another lawyer was arrested: Mustafa Rüzgar.

Now, our colleagues are released and free. This is good news, although the judge issued for some of the lawyers a ban on leaving the country.

According to the information we have, there is no justification for these arrests and searches. The lawyers are accused of “working for, or belonging to a terrorist organisation.” Everything indicates that the accusations are based on their professional activities.

Neither the police officers nor the prosecutor have provided information on the grounds of the prosecution and the arrests. Lawyers have been arrested without any indictment and without access to any information concerning their arrest.

Currently, as the EU is negotiating with Turkey a common future policy, this constitutes yet another reason to refuse any attack by the Turkish State against Human Rights defenders, against lawyers, against academics, politicians and citizens who are defending a democratic change for Turkey and for Kurdistan. Anyone working for peace must not and cannot be considered a terrorist and/or member of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) because this means that for the Turkish State the only logic is repression. With such actions Turkey does not comply with the minimum standards of democracy and human rights needed to be a member of the UE.

Moreover, the latest news tell us that last week, and within only 3 days, at least 320 citizens were arrested and accused of being member of, or providing support to the PKK. This wave of arrests of journalists, academics and lawyers for Human Rights must stop.

We consider that all these facts constitute an attack on the people and an attempt to silence the opposition in Turkey. The “Academics for Peace” who signed a petition against the government criticizing the military aggressions of many Kurdish cities, have been arrested, in some cases dismissed, and in many cases punished with disciplinary measures. 3 Academics: Esra Mungan, Kıvanç Ersoy and Muzaffer Kaya were imprisoned.

For these reasons, we urge the Turkish government to:

I.- Respect the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, 1990, namely:

– to permit lawyers to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference.

– to permit lawyers to travel and to consult with their clients freely both within their own country and abroad.

– and to ensure that lawyers shall not suffer, or be threatened with, prosecution or administrative, economic or other sanctions for any action taken in accordance with recognized professional duties, standards and ethics.

II.- Ensure the respect of the guarantees set out in Art 6, ECHR: a fair hearing, an independent and impartial tribunal established by law and the right to be presumed innocent, to be informed promptly of the nature and cause of the accusation; and to have adequate time and the facilities for the preparation of the defence.

III.- Guarantee the separation of powers: the one element that creates most discussion and complaints is the way that in this type of cases, the members of the Court are elected by the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) dominated by the executive power. This makes impossible the independence of justice and coerces the judges and prosecutors in their work because they are subjected to the political decisions of the Ministry of Justice.

IV.- Ensure the real exercise of the freedom of expression, information and ideological freedom, that are not respected at the present time.

For the above mentioned reasons, we are going to bring these cases to the European Institutions and the European Parliament. We believe that this situation does not ensure the exercise of fundamental and civil rights as contained in the treaties signed by the Republic of Turkey. We believe that currently Turkey cannot become a member of the EU without deep democratic reforms.

Créteil, Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Milano, Istanbul, Bilbo, Brussels, Berlin,

20th of March 2016,

Please download our press statement in English , French or Spanish and make it turn!

 

 

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SAF takes position on the state of emergency

The French Syndicat des Avocats de France takes position on the state of emergency and the constitutional reform.

 

Dans une République où le pouvoir législatif est déjà soumis à l’exécutif, ces mesures sont de nature à transformer profondément notre démocratie en régime arbitraire.

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Campagne Européenne sur l’identification des Forces de l’Ordre

L’AED (Avocats Européens Démocrates) promeut une campagne européenne pour la signature d’une pétition adressée au Commissaire européen, à la Commission européenne et à la Commission des Droits de l’Homme du Parlement européen, demandant la prise des mesures nécessaires à l’adoption d’une directive européenne sur l’identification des agents de police sur la base d’une décision antérieure du Parlement européen.

Notre intention est de rassembler le plus grand nombre de signatures pour la présenter aux autorités européennes dans tous les Etats membres de l’UE

En effet dans nombre d’entre eux, le badge ou le numéro d’identification ne font pas partie de l’uniforme de la police ou peuvent être cachés dans certaines circonstances, comme ceux de la police chargée de veiller à l’ordre public.

En France s’il est vrai que depuis le 1 janvier 2014[1] les policiers et agents de sécurités sont tenus de porter un numéro d’identification individuel, aucune sanction n’est cependant prévue en cas de non- respect de cette obligation.

 

Par ailleurs, alors qu’il s’agissait d’une promesse de campagne, le Président de la République a renoncé à instaurer le récépissé de contrôle d’identité et l’Etat français a été récemment condamné pour faute lourde en raison du caractère discriminatoire de contrôles d’identité menés par des policiers. [2]

 

Enfin, la promulgation de l’Etat d’urgence[3] donne des pouvoirs exorbitants à la police lui permettant d’intervenir sans autorisation ni contrôle préalable du juge judiciaire.

 

Aussi cette campagne revêt-elle une actualité brûlante.

En conséquence, il est demandé aux autorités de l’UE de prendre les mesures nécessaires et d’entamer un débat visant à l’adoption d’une directive ou d’une décision-cadre permettant de donner une réponse dans le but d’éviter les atteintes aux droits fondamentaux, de sauvegarder les droits de la défense, l’indépendance du pouvoir judiciaire et son rôle de contrôle et afin de bannir du quotidien l’impunité des actions délictueuses desdites forces de police et de leurs responsables administratifs et politiques selon les critères suivants :

I.- Obligation générale d’une identification sur les uniformes de toutes les forces de police.

II.- Visibilité simple et claire des identifications, fixant leurs dimensions et stipulations.

III.- Obligation pour tout agent de police de s’identifier à la requête d’un citoyen.

IV.- Système clair de sanctions pour les contrevenants à la loi.

[1] Arrêté du 24 décembre 2013 JORF n°0300 du 27 décembre 2013
texte n° 46
[2] CA Paris 24 juin 2015

[3] Loi n° 2015-1501 du 20 novembre 2015 prorogeant l’application de la loi n° 55-385 du 3 avril 1955 relative à l’état d’urgence et renforçant l’efficacité de ses dispositions

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L’Urgence d’en Sortir

Sans même évoquer l’absence de garantie de proportionnalité qui entoure leur mise en œuvre, les mesures de l’état d’urgence ne s’avèrent d’aucune nécessité dans une société démocratique : non seulement elles sont possible en droit commun mais leur spécificité ne tient nullement à une meilleure prise en compte du phénomène terroriste. En réalité, leur seul véritable objet est de renforcer l’arbitraire des autorités répressives, contribuant par là même à renforcer le risque terroriste.

The French SAF has just published an in-depth analysis of the law concerning the state of emergency in France.

Read and download.

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European Lawyers report Massive Human Rights Violations in Diyarbakir (Turkey)

London/Düsseldorf, 25th January 2016

Press Release:
European Lawyers report Massive Human Rights Violations in Diyarbakir (Turkey) due to curfew –immediate international action needed

A delegation* of 10 lawyers from Austria, Belgium, Germany, and Italy visited Diyarbakir, Turkey, from 21st to 24th of January 2016 to monitor the impact of the curfew on the population. The mission was coordinated by two European lawyers’ organisations, the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH) and the European Democratic Lawyers (EDL), and also the “Unione delle Camere Penali Italiane”.

The lawyers had meetings with the bar association, human rights organizations, the chamber of doctors, families of victims, a women’s organization, the co-mayor of the city and the People’s Democratic Party. In the course of these meetings, they received reports about a dramatic situation.

In the Sur district, the ancient centre of Diyarbakir, as well as other cities and districts of the region, curfews are being imposed by the government. In Sur, the 125.000 inhabitants of 6 neighbourhoods are completely isolated by the curfew. Around 22,000 people had left the curfew areas, some of them deliberately, most of them forced by the military. People living in the area subject to curfew are not allowed to leave; exit is allowed only in rare moments when the curfew is lifted and even then subject to the arbitrary decisions of the army officers. People who leave those areas are not sure that they will be allowed to go back to their homes. On the contrary, no one who is not a resident of Sur can enter. This results also in a serious lack of transparency. No one is able to assess the real situation because no international delegation or independent person is allowed to see with his own eyes. Therefore no- one has a chance to collect evidence, participate in an autopsy etc. This makes it easy for the state to claim that; “everyone who had died was a terrorist” or was “killed by terrorists”.

The population is not properly informed about a temporary lifting of the curfew and about the time when it was re-imposed. For this reason in some cases people, among them several school-children, have been shot by military snipers because they were not aware of the restart of the curfew. The curfew in Sur has lasted already for more than 50 days, day and night. The consequence is that the basic needs of citizens of Sur are violated. They have no access to medical care; access to drinking water, food and electricity is limited. In the whole region, an estimated 1.5 million people are directly or indirectly affected by the curfews and the military atrocities.

The inhabitants of Sur are taken hostage by the military, and are subjected to ill-treatment and to extreme violence. The delegation could hear gun-fire day and night, and observed helicopters and fighter jets flying over the city and armoured vehicles patrolling the streets. The rights to education, health and health care and free movement are being violated. Houses are destroyed by the military and water pipes and electricity lines are interrupted and/or destroyed.

The Turkish government boasts to have killed hundreds of fighters. They don’t mention the hundreds of civilians, among them many children, who have been killed and wounded. Wounded people remain on the street because they are prevented from receiving medical treatment and die because of their injuries. Corpses of men, women and children remain on the streets often for many days, because their families are prevented from burying them.

Every morning, fully equipped doctors demand access to the curfew zone but are pushed back by police.

This curfew violates Turkish as well as international law. According to the Turkish constitution and the State of Emergency Law, the prerequisite for the declaration of a curfew is the declaration of a state of emergency. The Council of Ministers did not declare a State of Emergency. International human rights treaties which have been ratified by Turkey are not respected.

The lawyers call upon

  • The Turkish Government to put an immediate end to the unlawful curfew and to respect national and international law and treaties;
  • The European Institutions to do all they can to end this human tragedy. The legally questionable cooperation between the EU and Turkey against the free movement of refugees cannot justify the silence of the European Union towards the crimes, which are being committed right now in Diyarbakir, Cizre and other towns in the region;
  • The United Nations to convene urgently a meeting of the UN Security Council on the deteriorating situation of the civilians under curfew.

 

For more information, contact

Silke Studzinsky
E-mail: sist@rajus.de

Tel.: +49 (0) 177 5034907

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Journée de l’avocat en danger 2016 – Mobilisons-nous en faveur des avocats de Honduras !

Depuis le coup d’état de 2009, les violations graves des droits de l’homme, commises à grande échelle, ont fortement affecté la population du Honduras. L’absence de réaction de l’Etat à la hauteur de la gravité de la situation est largement dénoncée par les organes des Nations-Unies et la Commission interaméricaine des droits de l’homme.

Les avocats ne sont pas épargnés par cette situation. La pratique du droit est en soi génératrice de risque dans un contexte de perte totale de confiance de la population envers l’institution judiciaire et ses différents acteurs.

Le nombre d’avocats enregistrés auprès du barreau national du Honduras s’élève à 18.000.

La Commission nationale des droits de l’homme (CONADEH) a enregistré entre 2010 et mars 2015, 89 cas de mort violente de professionnels du droit (avocats, juges et membres du parquet).

Dans la grande majorité, ces meurtres ont été commis à l’arme à feu et dans au moins 82% des cas, le ou les auteurs de ces crimes restent impunis.

L’absence de mise en place de programmes spécifiques de protection pour les acteurs de justice par les autorités a été régulièrement dénoncée par la Commission interaméricaine des droits de l’homme. Tous réclament de l’Etat autant la mise en place des mesures nécessaires à la protection de leur intégrité physique et morale.

Trop souvent l’avocat est rendu responsable des disfonctionnements de la justice ou même simplement du fait que le juge a tranché en faveur de la partie adverse. Dans un pays où la violence est omniprésente,  la frustration ressentie par les justiciables se règle trop souvent par des attaques, souvent fatales, à l’encontre des avocats ou magistrats.

Un avocat au Honduras doit être formé à la sécurité, pouvoir être sélectif dans les dossiers qu’il accepte et exclure tout dossier potentiellement générateur de danger en raison de la personnalité des parties ou des enjeux présents.

Une telle situation n’est pas conforme à la mission de l’avocat et est dénoncée par tous comme ayant des conséquences graves sur la capacité des professionnels du droit à exercer leurs fonctions de façon indépendante et impartiale.