From Civil Disobedience to the Crime of Solidarity
Urgent request for intervention in favour of Mrs Nasrin Sotoudeh
To:
Ms. Margaret Satterthwaite
UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges
and lawyers
Email: hrc-sr-independencejl@un.org
Ms. Mary Lawlor
UN Special Rapporteur on the
situation
of Human Rights Defenders
Email: defenders@ohchr.org
Ms. Marija Pejčinović Burić
Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Fax: + 33 (0)3 88 41 27 99
Ms. Dunja Mijatović
Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of
Europe
Email: commissioner@coe.int
Ms. Roberta Metsola
President of the European
The undersigned organizations urge you to take concrete and urgent action in the case of Nasrin Sotoudeh, prominent and well-known lawyer and human rights defender.
On Sunday, 29 October, the media broke the news that she had been arrested while attending the funeral of Armita Garavand, the 16-year-old girl who died after 28 days in a coma following her arrest by the infamous Morality Police in the Tehran metro.
She was taken along with other arrested women to the Vozara detention centre, the same one in which Mahsa Amini died last year.
She was scheduled to be heard in her case on Monday, 30 October, at Evin prison, but was not brought to court because she refused to wear a veil.
She was then taken to Qarchak prison, known for its poor conditions of detention, and is currently on a hunger strike in protest, refusing both essential medication for her health and visits.
The Iranian authorities must immediately and unconditionally free Nasrin Sotoudeh, drop all charges against her and stop persecuting her for her efforts to protect, inter alia, women from discrimination and humiliation to which they are subjected in contravention of the principle of civilization enshrined in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ratified by Iran in 1948, according to which ‘all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’ where dignity comes even before rights.
Likewise, the international community, including the EU given its ongoing dialogue with Iran, must condemn all forms of violence, including executions, discrimination and persecution, recognizing the freedoms of thought, conscience, religion, expression, assembly and association, as well as the right to a fair trial, as foundations of civilized living.
We Colleagues, Magistrates, NGOs and civil society are united and resolute in denouncing these violations of fundamental rights and freedoms and support human rights defenders. We no longer need martyrs to mourn, but heroes whose examples are to be followed.
We request a concrete statement from you, a decisive commitment to end the judicial harassment of Nasrin Sotoudeh, recalling the tenets of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers on the therein enshrined States’ responsibility.
If we do not defend human rights defenders, who will defend human rights?
We thank you for your attention and we look forward to your urgent and effective intervention.
Download the Statement
Turkey: Top Court Upholds Rights Defender’s Life Term
Conviction of Osman Kavala and Four Others Needs Urgent International Response
(Istanbul, October 10, 2023) – The prosecution of the rights defender and businessman Osman Kavala and four codefendants in connection with mass protests a decade ago has been unfair and essentially a political show trial from the beginning, a group of nine non-governmental organizations including AED-EDL today, ahead of an October 12 urgent debate calling for Kavala’s release at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The five have been punished for the legitimate exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.
On September 28, 2023, Turkey’s Court of Cassation, its top appeals court, upheld the convictions, notwithstanding that the European Court of Human Rights has previously found no basis for detention or trial, and ordered Kavala’s immediate release.
“By ignoring these judgments and Turkey’s human rights obligations, the Court of Cassation is doubling down on the deep injustice of this case that dramatically demonstrates how far Turkey has deviated from the rule of law,” said Helen Duffy of the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project. “The trial has not only led to grave violations of the rights of Kavala and the others, but it provided a chilling example of how Turkey’s justice system has become a tool of political repression.”
Although President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish government officials repeatedly state that Turkish courts are independent, the trial of Kavala and his codefendants exposes those claims for the falsehood they are, and demonstrates how in key cases of interest to the president, prosecutors and courts blatantly do his bidding.
Kavala was sentenced to life in prison without parole, convicted of attempting to overthrow the government on false allegations that he organized and financed the 2013 Istanbul Gezi Park protests against a government urban development project. Four codefendants – Çiğdem Mater, Can Atalay, Mine Özerden and Tayfun Kahraman – received 18-year sentences for allegedly aiding Kavala, while the court quashed the 18-year sentences of Mücella Yapıcı, Hakan Altınay and Yiğit Ekmekçi, and ordered Yapıcı and Altınay’s release pending retrial.
“This trial cynically opened six years after the Gezi Park protests with the malevolent intent of casting them as the outcome of a grand conspiracy by one man, Osman Kavala,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “To achieve this the prosecution and the courts blatantly had to ignore all the evidence of spontaneous mass protests in which the vast majority of protesters committed no violence and exercised their lawful rights to freedom of expression and assembly.”
The Court of Cassation’s 78-page verdict simply reiterates the prosecution’s allegations in the February 2019 indictment, though the European Court of Human Rights ruled twice that the indictment offered insufficient evidence to justify Kavala’s detention, prosecution or conviction, and by inference, the other defendants’.
Notably, in a striking rebuke to the European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe, and Turkey’s human rights obligations, the Court of Cassation makes no reference to the repeated findings against Turkey in this case. In December 2019, the European Court ordered Kavala’s immediate release, and in February 2022, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the body responsible for overseeing implementation of European Court judgments, took the almost unprecedented step of triggering infringement proceedings against Turkey for its refusal to comply.
This led to a second European Court of Human Rights judgment condemning Turkey’s failure to carry out the first, and the failure of the Turkish court convicting Kavala and others on April 25, 2022, to recognize the European Court of Human Rights’ judgment.
The Court of Cassation decision doubled down on that rejection of the European Court’s role, with no mention of that judgment.
Turkey’s European and international allies, both unilaterally and through intergovernmental organizations, including the Council of Europe, the European Union, and the United Nations, should address this injustice as a matter of urgency. They should treat the case as a priority human rights matter in their mutual relations with Turkey, and push for the swift and full implementation of the European Court’s’ judgments, including for the defendants’ immediate release.
They should firmly condemn the abuse of criminal law against activists, human rights defenders, journalists and others in politically motivated cases. Robust efforts are essential to ensure that Turkey respects and abides by its human rights obligations and rule of law principles, which are currently being flouted with impunity.
In turning a blind eye to the Strasbourg court’s rulings, the Court of Cassation is also ignoring its constitutional obligation to ensure that Turkey adheres to binding decisions of the European Court, which take precedence over rulings in Turkey’s domestic courts.
“If the rule of law were at work here, the Court of Cassation would respect the European Court of Human Rights judgment ordering Kavala’s immediate release,” said Temur Shakirov, Europe and Central Asia Director (interim) at the International Commission of Jurists. “Instead, and flying in the face of the evidence, the court has decided it is better to follow President Erdogan’s view, repeated in speech after speech, that Kavala is guilty.”
The Court’s Flawed Reasoning
In its September 29 decision, the Court of Cassation relies on a chronology of events from the February 2019 indictment that the prosecution argues constituted the preparation for the Gezi protests. This included making a short video with a group of actors in 2011 called “Rise up Istanbul,” production of a play in Istanbul about a dictator, which ran from 2012-13, and the 2012 establishment of the civil society platform, Taksim Solidarity, focused on the highly contested plan to develop Taksim Square and Gezi Park. The court fails to show any causality between these lawful activities and any crime or to provide any evidence that these activities showed that Kavala and the other defendants were involved in a conspiracy.
The court decision makes reference to the protests and popular uprisings in various Middle Eastern countries that predated the Gezi protests and came to be known as the Arab Spring, and nonviolent civil disobedience movements such as OTPOR in Serbia a decade earlier, without showing their relevance to the case.
The decision names civil society organizations and alleges they “supported and directed” the Gezi Park protests without providing any credible evidence. Chief among them are the Open Society Foundations, set up by the US financer and philanthropist George Soros, and the affiliated but independent (and now dissolved) philanthropic foundation in Turkey (Açık Toplum Vakfı). Kavala was a founding member of the group, and Altınay served for a period well before the Gezi Park protests as director of the board.
The court repeats a conspiracy theory, informed by antisemitic tropes, from the original indictment that Soros’s organizations aimed to overthrow governments in various countries by encouraging uprisings, and that the Turkish Open Society Foundation and Kavala were involved in this process under the guise of innocent-looking philanthropic activities.
Kavala’s own civil society group, Anadolu Kültür A.Ş., which supports the arts, was also named. The other defendants were linked to Kavala through their participation in that organization: film producer Çiğdem Mater, employed as an advisor, Mine Özerden, a member of the board, and Yiğit Ekmekçi, deputy head of the board. Taksim Solidarity is named as the group in which three defendants – lawyer Can Atalay, city planner Tayfun Kahraman and architect Mücella Yapıcı – participated actively.
The Court of Cassation endorses the indictment’s inclusion of Kavala’s contacts with bodies such as the European Commission, members of the European Parliament, diplomats, diplomatic missions and international human rights groups, as evidence of alleged efforts to influence international opinion against the Turkish government.
A section on the alleged protest financing cites the Open Society Foundations’ funding of the Turkish Open Society and Anadolu Kültür, but it omits that a formal investigation into the funding cited in the indictment (the MASAK report) found no evidence of unaccounted for money transfers. Instead, the court relies on examples drawn from wiretapped conversations, of Kavala once bringing people camped in the park a few bread rolls, talking about obtaining a plastic table for use in the park, and where to buy masks and goggles to protect from police tear gas.
The court decision also allows as admissible evidence a mass of random wiretapped conversations between the defendants and others that were illegally obtained. Far from revealing any criminal activity, the conversations show that the defendants were lawfully engaged in civil society organizations and nonviolent activism, and were exercising their rights to free speech, association, and assembly. Such activities are strictly protected under international law, including treaties to which Turkey is a party such as the European Convention of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as in Turkey’s own laws.
The decision rejects parliamentary immunity from prosecution for one of the defendants, Atalay, a lawyer and activist who won a seat in the May 2023 parliamentary elections on behalf of the Workers’ Party of Turkey. The Court of Cassation decided that he was not protected by parliamentary immunity under article 83 of Turkey’s Constitution in relation to this case confirming its own July 13 decision on the matter, and upheld his conviction. In reaching this conclusion, the Court of Cassation rejects the case law of the Constitutional Court, given under identical conditions, in judgments related to other jailed parliament members, Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu and Leyla Güven, which held that they do have immunity and that arresting, prosecuting, and detaining them constitute very serious violations of that immunity.
The nongovernmental organizations who signed the statement are:
Amnesty International
ARTICLE 19
Human Rights Watch
European Democratic Lawyers (AED-EDL)
European Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH)
International Commission of Jurists
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
PEN International
International Fair Trial Day – Mexico
In 2021, a group of lawyers and lawyers’ organisations came together to establish an annual International Fair Trial Day (IFTD) to be observed every year on 14 June. This initiative is supported by more than 100 legal associations across the world, all of which are committed to the vital importance of the right to a fair trial and the serious challenges to due process rights worldwide. They established a Steering Group for the organization of the IFTD.
In 2023 the IFTD focus country was Mexico. The call for the initiative is here.
Now, we also have a final statement for the day:
Comparison of the legal aid systems in Europe: which standards for an effective legal aid?
Date 29th september 2023
Time : 15h-18h
Place : La Fleur en Papier Doré, Rue des Alexiens, 53-55 à 1000 Bruxelles
Price: free
Legal aid, as the provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system, is regarded as central in providing access to justice. Legal aid ensures equality before the law, the right to counsel and the right to a fair trial.
Legal aid is essential to guaranteeing equal access to justice for all, but the practical application of this guarantee differs from country to country. The speakers of the colloque are working lawyers in the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece and Turkey, confronted in their professional experience with legal aid, and will explain its functioning in the law and in the everyday praxis.
Through the presentation and analysis of these different national systems of legal aid, this initiative aims at exchanging strengths and weaknesses of the models and thus at elaborating minimal standards for legal aid. Legal aid, which can effectively provide assistance for those in need.
15h00 : Introduction, by Hélène DEBATY
15h15: Legal aid system in the Netherlands. Speaker: Sturla SPANS
15h30: Legal aid system in Spain. Speakers: Gorka VELLE BERGADO and Blanca DOMINGUEZ PARRA
15h45: Legal aid system in Belgium. Speaker Aurore LEBEAU
16h00: Legal aid system in France. Speaker Bénédicte MAST
16h 15-16h30: Break
16h 30: Legal aid system in Germany: Julius BECKER
16h45 : Legal aid system in Greece: Giota MASSOURIDOU
17h00 : Legal aid system in Turkey: Gulsah KURT
17h 15: Questions
17 h 30: Conclusions, by Hélène DEBATY
Open letter by over 180 human rights organizations and initiatives together with Tima Kurdi, aunt of Alan Kurdi.
Up to 600 people drown off Pylos, Greece – only days after EU leaders agreed to further erode the right to asylum
Today on World Refugee Day, we jointly demand full and independent investigations into the events, clear consequences for those responsible, an end to the systematic pushback practices at the European borders, and justice for the victims.
10 years after the two shipwrecks off Lampedusa, Italy, killing around 600 people and causing an immense public outcry, up to 600 people drowned off Pylos, Greece, in the Mediterranean Sea. On June 14, 2023, once again, the European border regime killed people exercising their right to seek protection. We are shaken! And we stand in solidarity with all survivors and with the families and friends of the deceased. We express our deep condolences and grief.
So far, uncountable questions remain unanswered. According to testimonies of the survivors, the Hellenic coast guard towed the boat causing it to capsize. Why was this incredibly dangerous maneuver attempted at all? Did the Hellenic coast guard tow the boat toward Italy to push people forward into Italian or Maltese responsibility? Why did neither the Hellenic coast guard nor the Italian or Maltese authorities intervene earlier even though they were alerted at least 12 hours before? What role did the European border and coast guard agency Frontex play?
In all this uncertainty, one thing is unmistakable: This shipwreck – as well as countless others before – is the direct consequence of political decisions taken to prevent people from arriving in Europe. This shipwreck results from the impunity of illegal activities exercised by states at borders and the legalization of practices that aim to normalize the deprivation of rights of people on the move. Activists and organizations have denounced systematic push- and pullbacks, delays and omission of rescues, criminalization of civil search and rescue operations, and cooperation with unsafe countries to externalize European borders and to carry out refoulments. European migration and externalization policies cause physical and psychological violence, imprisonment, and death. Stop diverting your responsibility – Stop killing people on the move!
So far, the European Union and its member states have shown no intention to learn from the past years and end the deaths in the Mediterranean. Instead, they tighten their deadly policies of isolation. Only last week, on 8 June, the Council of the European Union agreed on a reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) leading to a massive deprivation of fundamental rights, such as the right to asylum or the right to move freely.
It was only a matter of time until the next shipwreck happened and it will happen again while conditions in countries of origin, transit, and departure worsen and border practices force people on the move to take more dangerous routes. Since Lampedusa in 2013, we have seen at least 27.047 deaths in the Mediterranean Sea. One of them was Alan Kurdi. His aunt, Tima Kurdi, loudly speaks out about the deadly shipwreck:
“This shipwreck brings back my pain, our pain. I am heartbroken. I am heartbroken for all the innocent souls lost that are not just numbers in this world. “Never again” we heard in 2015, I heard it countless times. And what changed? How many innocent souls have been lost at sea since then? I want to take you back to September 2, 2015, when all of you saw the image of my nephew, the 2-year-old baby lying on the Turkish beach. What did you feel when you saw his image? What did you say, what did you do? Me, when I heard about my nephew drowning, I fell to the floor crying and screaming as loud as I could because I wanted the world to hear me! Why them? Why now? And who’s next? Since then, I decided to raise my voice and speak up for everyone who is not heard.
The European migration policy needs to change now. It needed to change a long time ago already. It needs to provide safe ways to flee. Building a wall is no solution. Detaining rescue ships for saving lives is no solution. Blaming people as smugglers is no solution. People are suffering, and they will always find a way to flee. You have the power to decide if they have to take dangerous routes because there is no other way to go. Act on it!”
With the unforgivable shipwreck off Greece, we see that the Mediterranean Sea is not only a graveyard, it is a crime scene. A scene of crimes against humanity with millions of privileged tourists continuing to cruise on it freely every year. On this account, we demand an immediate end to (systemic) border violence. We demand that:
- both Greek and European governments and institutions ensure that full, thorough, and independent investigations into these events are conducted. It’s time for complete transparency about what happened and accountability of those responsible. This includes officials who were directly involved in the events through decision-making, as well as those political leaders who have been facilitating and perpetuating the hostile practices at the external borders for years. Access to justice for the victims and their loved ones must be ensured.
- the Greek government immediately releases the Pylos shipwreck’s survivors from (semi-)closed facilities and instead provides them with dignified accommodation and any kind of support needed, such as independent legal counseling, psychological support, and the possibility to communicate with families and friends. Furthermore, we petition for the release of the 9 men arrested. We condemn the criminalization of people on the move, blamed for illegalized entries and deaths at sea. These accusations are intended to exonerate responsible state actors.
- all European member states at the external borders stop the weaponizing of time by delaying rescue efforts. Furthermore, we demand independent investigations and conclusive measures by the European Commission against the systematic practice of pushbacks and non-assistance at sea and on land conducted by European member states – as widely demonstrated by organizations and activists in recent years.
- the European Union and its member states provide safe and legal routes to Europe as the only solution to avoid further loss of life at sea. The CEAS reform, further eroding the right to asylum in the European Union, must not become law. Additionally, we demand the creation of a long overdue European state-led rescue program.
Signatories
Tima Kurdi
Abolish Frontex
aditus foundation
AED – European Democratic Lawyers
Afrique-Europe-Interact
Aftenergeia (Self-action) – political collective
AK Arbeitskämpfe, Assoziation für kritische Gesellschaftsforschung (AkG)
Alarme Phone Sahara
All Included Amsterdam
Amal Berlin!
Anarchist Solidarity
antira.org
ASGI – Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration
Asians of Chaos
Association for Justice, Equality and Peace (AJEP)
Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants – ASAM Türkiye
Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants – ASAM Greece
Asylum Links
Baobab Experience
Barnim für Alle
BIPoC Ukraine &and friends in gGermany
Blue Door Education
Border Forensics
borderline-europe – Human Rights without Borders
Border Violence Monitoring Network
Boza Fii – Alarm Phone Dakar
Bozen Solidale
Bridges over Borders e.V.
Café Zuflucht / Refugio e.V., Aachen
Cambiare l’Ordine delle Cose – Forum Nazionale
Campagna LasciateCIEntrare
Campaign „You can‘t evict solidarity“
Captain Support Network
Carovane Migranti (Italia-Messico-Tunisia)
Centre for Peace Studies
Channel Info Project
Chkoun Collective
Civil March For Aleppo
Clinica del Diritto dell’Immigrazione e della Cittadinanza Roma
CNCD-11.11.11
Collective Aid
Collettivo Rotte Balcaniche Alto Vicentino
CompassCollective
Convenzione dei diritti nel Mediterraneo
CopwatchFFM
CPT – Aegean Migrant Solidarity
Cuistots solidaires asbl
de:border | migration justice collective
Diotima Centre for Gender Rights & Equality
Droit de rester- Fribourg
Droit de rester- Lausanne
Dutch League for Human Rights
ECHO100PLUS
Ens Movem
EqualHealth´s Campaign Against Racism
Ermittlungsausschuss Hamburg
EuroMed Rights
Europe Cares
Feminist Autonomous Centre for Research
Flüchtlingsrat Hamburg e.V.
Flüchtlingsrat Sachsen-Anhalt
Forensic Architecture
Forensis e.V.
Foundation Day of the Endangered Lawyer
Freie deutsch syrische Gesellschaft e.V.
From the Sea to the City
Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)
Grupa Granica
Gruppo Melitea
Haitian Bridge Alliance
Hub Humanitaire de Bruxelles Médecins du Monde Belgique
Human Rights Association (Turkey)
Human Rights at Sea
HumanRights360
Humans before borders
I Have Rights.
Initiativenbündnis Berlinzusammen
Integra Foundation
Inter Alia
Internationaler Fußballclub Rostock
Irida Women’s Center
iuventa-crew
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Malta
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Greece
Jewish Antifascist Bund Berlin
JG-Stadtmitte Jena
Jugendkulturinitiative Schwäbisch Gmünd
Just Action
JUZ Friedrich Dürr, Mannheim
Klimagerechtigkeit für alle
Kopin – Empowering Communities
kritnet – Netzwerk Kritische Migrations- und Grenzregimeforschung
Kuchnia Konfliktu Poland
Kulturkollektiv Semtex St. Pauli
LeaveNoOneBehind
Legal Centre Lesvos
Lesvos Solidarity
Let’s Bring Them Here, The Netherlands
Lighthouse Relief
Ligue Tunisienne pour les Droits Humains (LTDH)
Lungo la rotta balcanica
Lützerath Lebt
Maldusa
Malta LGBTIQ Rights Movement
MARDi NGO
Mare Liberum
Mare*Go
Médecins Du Monde Belgique
Médecins du Monde Greece
Medici del Mondo Italia
medico international
MEDITERRANEA Saving Humans
Mem.Med – Memoria Mediterranea
Migrant Solidarity Network
Migrant Women Assocition Malta
migration control.info
MiGreat
Migreurop
Mission Lifeline e.V.
Mobile Info Team
movements without borders
MV Louise Michel
No Border Assembly
No Border Medics e.V.
No Border Kitchen Lesvos
No Name Kitchen
No Nation Truck
NoBorders community Athens
Non Una di Meno Venezia
Northern Lights Aid
Novact – International Institute for Nonviolent Action
Open Assembly Against Border Violence Lesvos
Paulo Freire Institute Foundation Malta
Plateforme Citoyenne en Soutien aux Réfugiés – BelRefugees
Pro Bleiberecht in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Project Armonia
Project Play
r42 – SailAndRescue
RAV, Republican Lawyers’ Association
Reclaim the sea
Red Antirracista Tarragona
Refugee Legal Support
Refugees in Libya
Refugees in Tunisia
Refugees’ Solidarity movement
Republikanischer Anwältinnen – und Anwälteverein e.V. (RAV)
ResQ People Saving People
RESQSHIP e.V.
Right to Resist – linke Ukraine Solidarität Hamburg
Roots, Dunkirk
Safe Passage International
Safe Passage International AMKE
Salvamento Marítimo Humanitario
SARAH gUG
Sea Punks e.V.
Sea-Eye e.V.
Sea-Watch e.V.
Seebrücke
Seebrücke Frankfurt am Main
Seebrücke Jena
Seebrücke Kassel
Seebrücke Mainz
Seebrücke Schweiz
Sienos Grupė
Solidarischer Wohn- und Kulturraum Mannheim
Solidarisches Kollektiv Oberbadgasse e.V.
Solidarité sans frontières
SOS Humanity
Spazio Autogestito 77
St. Pauli Fanclub Dörte Becker
Statewatch
Stella Network North Macedonia
Stop deportation center BER
Sudan Uprising Germany
SUDS – Associació Internacional de Solidaritat i Cooperació
Swiss Democratic Lawyers
The Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM)
Tunisian forum for economic and social rights FTDES
Ultrà Sankt Pauli
United4Rescue – Gemeinsam retten e.V.
Verband deutsch syrischer Hilfsvereine e.V.
VVN-BdA e.V. Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes – Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten
VVN-BdAN e.V. Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes – Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten Landesorganisation Hamburg
International Fair Trial Day 2023
This year, the International Fair Trial Day will take place in Mexico on the 14th of June 2023.
You can register now!
International Fair Trial Day Conference and the Ebru Timtik Award Ceremony
International Fair Trial Day (IFTD) Steering Group invites you to join the IFTD Mexico Conference on Wednesday June 14th, which will take place in Mexico City in Dr. Guillermo Floris Margadant room, Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas of UNAM from 10:00 to 18:00. Participation in the Conference is free.
Criminalisation of Lawyers in Turkey- Report by ÖHD (Lawyers for Freedom) and Diyarbakir Lawyers’ Bar Association
In the morning hours of the 25th of April 2023, during a wide police operation, 191 people, including 25 lawyers and other members of civil society in Turkey were arrested and their houses searched.
Of the 25 lawyers initially arrested, 16 have been released under judicial control, following deposition and interrogation procedures. 4 lawyers are still under dentention. All of these lawyers have been criminalized for the practice of their profession and linked them, without proof, to the crimes against their clients.
Following these events, the Diyarbakir bar association and OHD (the Association of Lawyers for Freedom) have compiled a report, concluding that targeting defense lawyers in investagions of the prosecution, devoid of legal basis, undermines an important mechanism that guarantees the right to a fair trial.
AIM
This report aims at compiling all violations to the right to a fair trial and is to be used as the basis to make the required national and international legal applications and criminal complaints.
Read the whole report
7th anniversary of the 2016 EU-Turkey Statement
March 18 2023 marks the 7th anniversary of the 2016 EU-Turkey Statement. In 2016, Turkey assumed the role of the European Union’s border guard. It received billions of Euros from the
EU on the condition that it held migrants in Turkey and received those who were deported back.
Turkey, however, did not hesitate to exploit this position, using migrants as a threat and, whennecessary, as leverage against the EU.
On February 6 2023, following the earthquakes in Turkey, living conditions for migrants have deteriorated. Increasing racism has led to violent attacks against migrants; for this reason, the earthquake-affected areas can no longer be considered safe for migrants. As aid policies have excluded migrants from the relief system, migrants have difficulties accessing even basic necessities such as drinking water or shelter. Migrants have been labeled as “looters”, and there have been reports that members of Arabic-speaking communities in the region have been the target of racially-motivated mob attacks.
Representatives of the Turkish state publicly use anti-migrant rhetoric and promote racist sentiment. Further, migrants who survive the attacks may be tortured by law enforcement officers, as has been reported by legal and rights-based organizations working in the region.
The February 6 earthquake affected at least 10 cities in Turkey. These cities also host the highest percentage population of migrants compared to the local population. Migrants, who already constitute one of the most vulnerable sectors of society due to their socioeconomic status, are among the most mistreated subjects post-earthquake. As early as the second day of the earthquake, when thousands of people were still struggling to survive while trapped under the rubble, fake news with a racist, anti-migrant agenda was circulated by government agencies and representatives of political parties. This openly threatened migrants who had survived the
earthquake. Not only did state representatives fail to take any precautions to ensure the safety of migrants, they also failed to take the necessary steps to transfer migrants to other cities.
Migrants cannot travel outside their registered cities without travel permits and the lack of issuance of these permits left thousands of people stranded in the aftermath of the disaster. By the beginning of March there were still people in the earthquake zone who could not find a tent, while nightly temperatures dropped below zero. This fact reveals that Turkey has consistently avoided fulfilling its obligation to protect the migrant population.
On the other side of Europe’s border, the Greek Coast Guard and Frontex (the EU’s Border Protection Agency), with bloated budgets increasing further every year, are building up the walls of Fortress Europe, threatening people’s lives by pushing migrants back to Turkey. In Greece, the islands that are close to the Anatolian peninsula are defined as ‘hotspots’ where exceptional procedural rules apply. Here, migrants are portrayed as a threat to the existence of Greece itself. Migrants who do manage to reach these islands after surviving pushback incidents face difficulties in accessing the asylum procedure and health care, and are forced to live in camps that operate as open-air prisons, far from city centers. Many migrants’ applications for international protection are rejected on the grounds that Turkey is a safe third country, citing the EU-Turkey Statement, which also turned the islands into de facto open-air prisons for people
who are not permitted to leave.
Moreover, in the Greek border camps, from the EU-Turkey Statement until today, many people have lost their lives trapped there, with no accountability 1from the Greek state and no change in migration policy. On the contrary, the Greek state with the (political and financial) support of the EU is opening new camps. In Greece, the people are being incited against migrants by media and political networks – just as in Turkey. In Greece, the government criminalizes migrants and people who work or stand in solidarity with migrants, launching absurd criminal investigations and convicting people in trials without evidence. By applying criminal provisions on espionage, smuggling and human trafficking, Greece reproduces yet again the climate of fear, which is already well established in Turkey through the extensive use of ‘anti-terror’ legislation.
We, the undersigned organizations, declare that policies of border externalization, and of turning migrants into a cheap labor force, should be stopped immediately. We are against the use of migrants as leverage in domestic and international politics.
We underline that the externalization statements signed between the EU and Turkey or North African countries are against international law. These externalization statements should be immediately revoked, as they violate the responsibilities of the parties to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.
We, the undersigned organizations, demand:
– the immediate termination of the application of the EU-Turkey Statement, as codified in Greek national law and regulations or through international agreements with Turkey, as well as all similar externalization statements with other countries, which have been
implemented with a similar motive of preventing migrants from entering the EU;
– that the practice of pushbacks between Turkey and Greece, in which the right to life and the prohibition of torture as enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights are routinely violated, be stopped and remedy mechanisms for the survivors to be implemented immediately;
– that regulations assuring that migrants’ rights are respected, ensuring decent living conditions and freedom of movement, be implemented.
Signatures
| Academics for Peace / Germany (Barış İçin Akademisyenler Almanya) |
| Adalet İçin Hukukçular / Lawyers for Justice |
| Agora Association Izmir (Turkey) |
| ASGI – Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration |
| Asociación Americana de Juristas |
| Association for Mutual Support and Solidarity with Migrants (Göçmen Yardımlaşma ve Dayanışma Derneği) (Turkey) |
| Avukat Dayanışması / Lawyer solidarity |
| Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC) |
| Center for Research and Elaboration on Democracy/Group of International Legal Intervention (CRED/GIGI) |
| Civic Space Studies Association (Sivil Alan Araştırma Derneği – Türkiye) |
| Community Peacemakers Teams (CPT) (Greece) |
| Confederation of European Alevi Unions (Avrupa Alevi Birlikleri Konfederasyonu) |
| Confederation of Lawyers of Asia & Pacific (COLAP) |
| Confederation of Public Employees’ Trade Unions (Kamu Emekçileri Sendikaları Konfederasyonu – KESK) (Turkey) |
| de:border | migration justice collective (Netherlands) |
| Democratic Alevi Associations (Demokratik Alevi Dernekleri – DAD) (Turkey) |
| Democratic Lawyers Association of Bangladesh (DLAB) |
| Demokrasi İçin Hukukçular / Lawyers for democracy |
| Demokratische Jurist*innen Schweiz |
| Diotima – Centre for Gender Rights & Equality (Greece) |
| Doug Nicholls, General Secretary, General Federation of Trade Unions |
| European Democratic Lawyers (AED) |
| European Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH) |
| Feminist Autonomous Centre for research (FAC) |
| Foundation for Society and Legal Studies (Toplum ve Hukuk Araştırmaları Vakfı – TOHAV) (Turkey) |
| Giuristi Democratici (Italy) |
| Göç Araştırmaları Derneği (Association for Migration Resarch – Turkey) |
| Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers |
| Hubyar Sultan Alevi Cultural Association (Hubyar Sultan Alevi Kültür Derneği) (Turkey) |
| I Have Rights, Samos (Greece) |
| International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) |
| International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) |
| Iran of the World |
| Iuventa-Crew |
| İnsan Hakları Derneği – İHD (Human Rights Association) (Turkey) |
| Kadın Zamanı Derneği (Women’s Time Association / Turkey) |
| Kadınlar Birlikte Güçlü Platformu – KBG (Women Are Stronger Together Platform – Istanbul) (Turkey) |
| Kartal hukukçular derneği |
| La Garriga Societat Civil (Catalunya) |
| Lawyers Association for Freedom (Özgürlük İçin Hukukçular Derneği – ÖHD) (Turkey) |
| Legal Center Lesvos (Greece) |
| Lesvos LGBTQI+ Refugee Collective |
| MAYA Eğitim Kültür Araştırma Yardımlaşma ve Dayanışma Derneği (Maya Association for Education, Culture, Research, Solidarity and Cooperation) |
| Media and Law Studies (Medya ve Hukuk Çalışmaları Derneği) (Turkey) |
| Medya ve Göç Derneği (The Media and Migration Association (MMA) – Turkey |
| Migrant Solidarity Network / Ankara (GDA / Ankara) |
| Mültecilerle Dayanışma Derneği (Association for Solidarity with Refugees) (Turkey) |
| National Union of People’s Lawyers of the Philippines (NULP) |
| Observatori DESC, Cátedra UNESCO de desarrollo humanos sostenible (Universidad de Girona)(Catalunya) |
| ÖDAV / Libertarian democrat lawyers |
| Pembe Hayat LGBTİ+ Dayanışma Derneği (Pink Life LGBTİ+ Solidarity Association-Turkey) |
| People’s Bridges (Halkların Köprüsü) (Turkey) |
| Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Association (Pir Sultan Abdal Kültür Derneği) (Turkey) |
| Progressive Lawyers Association (Çağdaş Hukukçular Derneği – ÇHD) (Turkey) |
| Progrssive Lawyers Group (Çağdaş Avukatlar Grubu) (Turkey) |
| Refugee Legal Support Athens |
| Refugees in Libya (refugeesinlibya.org) |
| Republikanischer Anwältinnen- und Anwälteverein e. V (RAV) |
| Research Institute onTurkey (RIT) |
| Schweizerischer Friedensrat, Zürich |
| Sınırsız Kadın Dayanışması (Woman’s Solidarity Without Borders – Istanbul) |
| Sol Hukuk (Turkey) |
| Solidarité sans frontières |
| Sosyal Hukuk |
| Syndicat des avocats de France (SAF) |
| Tadamun Antimili (Colombia) |
| The Catalan association ACDDH |
| the Socialist Lawyers Association of Ireland |
| Toplumsal Hukuk (Turkey) |
| Transnational Migrants Coordination |
| Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project (TLSP) |
| Vereinigung demokratischer Juristinnen und Juristen |
| We Want to Live Together Initiative (Birlikte Yaşamak İstiyoruz İnsiyatifi) (Turkey) |
| Yoga and Sports with Refugees |