AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

FACTS OF THE CASE:

In a continuing effort to interfere with the work of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT), the Turkish government has launched a trial against the HRFT's treatment center for torture survivors in Istanbul. On 24 September 1996, AAAS learned that the Public Prosecutor in Istanbul had scheduled a hearing against Dr. Sukran Akin, a medical doctor and director of the HRFT's Istanbul treatment center, on charges of "operating an unlicensed health center." The trial against Dr. Akin, which represents the latest in a series of legal attacks targeting the HRFT's efforts to document human rights violations and provide medical treatment for victims of police torture and abuse, is scheduled to begin on 1 November 1996 at the Istanbul Court of Peace.

Meanwhile, a related trial against the HRFT's treatment center in Adana continues. The third hearing in that trial against Foundation representatives Tufan K÷se, a medical doctor, and Mustafa Ãinkiliþ, a lawyer, took place on 13 September 1996. The two men are being prosecuted on charges of "operating an unlicensed health center," and "negligence in denouncing a crime." No decision was handed down at the 13 September hearing; the next hearing has been scheduled for 8 November 1996.

The Adana Court of Peace has requested that the defendants hand over patient files on the torture survivors that their center serves. The HRFT has refused to turn over its files, which are protected under internationally recognized standards of doctor-patient confidentiality. The government maintains that in order to verify the reports of torture made by the center's patients, it requires their names and complete medical records. In previous trials held on 10 May 1996 and 6 July 1996, the defendants submitted documents from a number of international medical organizations and torture treatment facilities describing the nature of their work and the importance of confidentiality as part of the treatment process. While the HRFT has submitted a summary of its patient files to the court, during the 13 September hearing the judge again insisted that it hand over the files in their entirety.

International medical organizations remain active in supporting the Foundation. Eleven representatives from international medical and human rights groups were present at the latest hearing, including a representative of AAAS. A representative of the World Medical Association also in attendance stated that "confidential medical information of this nature should only be handed over with the specific consent of the patient concerned... without specific consent, doctors should not hand over such information."

International observers at the trial described the legal actions against the HRFT, initiated by a March 1996 demarche from the Foreign Ministry requesting that several state agencies investigate the Foundation's activities, as part of a larger government strategy to close the Foundation or severely hamper its documentation and treatment work. The prosecution of the Foundation and its treatment centers was launched, in part, because the group's documentation of widespread and systematic torture in Turkey was reported in the U.S. State Department's annual human rights report this year. Five state agencies are currently involved in the campaign against the Foundation: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Justice, the Directorate for Foundations, and most recently the State Security Court.

The involvement of the State Security Court, which recently requested that the Foundation's board members appear for questioning, is especially troubling. The State Security Court is responsible for cases dealing with those accused of terrorism, drug smuggling, membership in illegal organizations, and espousing or disseminating ideas prohibited by law as "damaging the indivisibility of the state."

The Adana court's demands that the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey turn over its medical files represent a serious breach of internationally accepted standards of medical ethics, which protect the patient-care giver relationship. The confidentiality of this relationship is codified in the World Medical Association's 1948 Geneva Declaration, which states:

I [The Physician] shall respect the secrets which are confided in me.

The Turkish Medical Association is a member of the World Medical Association.

In addition, the continuing prosecution of HRFT representatives for their documentation of incidents of torture violates international human rights standards, including the right to free speech. Under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (which Turkey ratified in 1948):

Everyone has the right to freedom of expression (Article 10).

Sources of information for this case include AAAS staff in Turkey, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

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

• Drop all requests for the Foundation's medical files on the grounds that they fall under the protection of doctor-patient confidentiality;
• Drop all charges against the Foundation and its representatives.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

President Necmettin Erbacan
Office of the President
Cumhur Baskanligi
06100 Ankara, Turkey
Fax: 011 90 312 468 5026


Adalet Bakanligi
Minister of Justice
06559 Ankara, Turkey
Fax: 011 90 312 417 3954

COPIES SENT TO:

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


Ambassador Marc Grossman
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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