AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

FACTS OF THE CASE:

AAAS continues to be concerned about charges that have been brought against officials of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT), one of whom is an engineer. The officials have been charged in connection with reports published by the Foundation. In addition, charges have been brought against the Foundation's representatives in Adana, including a physician.

The HRFT was established in 1989 and has treated over 2,500 torture survivors. Its documentation center monitors human rights violations in Turkey and issues daily and annual reports.

In an atmosphere of increased sensitivity to criticism on its human rights record as it prepares to host the United Nations Habitat II conference to be held in Turkey, the government has stepped up pressure against the HRFT. Several government ministries are currently conducting investigations based on allegations made by the Ministry of the Exterior that the HRFT does not undertake rehabilitation work for torture survivors, but is actually engaged in political activities and fabricates cases of human rights violations.

The third hearing of the previously launched trial against the administrators of the HRFT will be held on 9 May in Ankara. Another trial, dealing with charges against the Foundations representatives in Adana and Dr. Tufan Kose, a physician who works in that office, is scheduled to begin on 10 May in Adana.

Investigators from the Ministry of Health have requested the names and addresses of torture survivors who applied to the Foundation for medical services, as well as names of their voluntary medical doctors and of the health institutions that have rendered service to the individuals. In addition, the Ministry of Health has demanded that the treatment centers be prevented from operating. The Foundation has denied these demands, citing protection from internationally accepted principles of medical ethics, including guarantees of physician, patient confidentiality.

The prosecution of officials of the Human Rights Foundation for the publication of articles and demands for the Foundation's records, among which are medical records, represent violations of international human rights standards, including internationally accepted medical ethics and basic protections provided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights. Among the relevant provisions are the following:

Information concerning patients received by HRFT Centers is protected under the International Code of Medical Ethics (World Medical Association 1949, 1968, 1983), which states that:

A physician shall preserve absolute confidentiality on all he knows about his patient even after the patient has died.

Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted without opposition by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948):

• the right to freedom of thought and expression and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media (Article 19); and

Under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ratified by Turkey on 18 May 1954):

• everyone has the right to freedom of expression (Section 1, Article 10).

(Sources of information on this case include the Center for Victims of Torture, the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, and the Chief Public Prosecutors Office of Ankara.)

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send telexes, telegrams, faxes, or airmail letters requesting that:

• charges against representative of the Human Right Foundation of Turkey be dismissed immediately;
• they not be prosecuted for the exercise of their internationally protected rights of free expression and association;
• they are given a fair and public hearing; and
• the investigation against the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey cease.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

President Suleyman Demirel
Office of the President
Cumhur Baskanligi
06100 Ankara, Turkey
Fax: 011-90-312-468-5026
Salutation: Your Excellency

Mr. Firuz Cilingiroglu
Minister of Justice
Adalet Bakanligi
06659 Ankara, Turkey
Fax: 011-90-312-417-3954
Salutation: Dear Minister

COPIES SENT TO:

Ambassador Nuzhet Kandemir
Embassy of the Republic of Turkey
1714 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036


Ambassador Richard C. Barkley
Embassy of the United States of America
Ataturk Blvd.
PSC 93, Box 5000
Ankara, Turkey
APO AE 09823
Fax: 011-90-312-467-0019

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