SummaryTurkey has made significant progress in reducing torture and other ill-treatment by the security services through successive legislative reforms since 1997. There are continuing problems implementing these laws, however, as the Turkish government itself concedes. The key to ensuring security forces’ compliance with safeguards against torture and ill-treatment is to intensify internal supervision, sharpen the state’s response to individual allegations of torture and other mistreatment, and permit independent monitoring of places of detention. This paper suggests actions that could be taken within weeks. If fully adopted, such measures could bring Turkey close to eliminating torture in police custody. Enhanced supervision is required at three levels: 1) effective routine internal supervision of police stations and gendarmeries by provincial governors, sub-governors, and prosecutors; 2) a readiness on the part of the justice, interior, and prime ministries to respond rapidly whenever there are individual allegations of torture, including with the dispatch of ministry inspectors; 3) independent visits by representatives of nongovernmental organizations to police stations and gendarme detention facilities. These measures would also show that the Turkish government is ready to back up its promise of “zero tolerance for torture” in preparation for December 2004, when the European Council will decide, on the basis of a report from the European Commission, whether or not Turkey has met the necessary human rights standards and can proceed with its European Union candidacy.
|