On the International Day of Endangered Lawyers – 2021, we have the privilege of having an exclusive interview with Mr Diego García-Sayán, the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. We talked about a wide range of topics: from growing authoritarianism to attacks on judges and lawyers; Poland, Turkey, Hungary, Italy and others.
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights established that Turkey’s anti-terror provision was not foreseeable.
Grand Chamber’s judgment strongly indicates that Turkey’s mass-detentions under the Art. 314 of Penal Code would be condemned by the Court.
Within the scope of our new project we are publishing interviews with prominent European lawyers, judges, academics and executives of associations of lawyers or judges. Our seventh interview is with Ms Tamara Trotman, the president of Judges for Judges (J4J).
Within the scope of our new project we are publishing interviews with prominent European lawyers, judges, academics and executives of associations of lawyers or judges. Our sixth interview is with Ms Edith Zeller president of Association European Administrative of Judges (AEAJ).
Turkey was reviewed by UPR WG 35, in January 2020. It received 321 recommendations and it supported 216 recommendations at the adoption of its UPR outcome at HumanRights Council 45, in September 2020. Supported recommendations related to: Legal and general framework of implementation, universal and cross-cutting… Read More ›
The Arrested Lawyers Initiative published the fifth edition of its report named ‘Mass Prosecution of Lawyers in Turkey‘.
Turkish Ministry of Justice has green-lighted the prosecution of the presidents of Istanbul and Ankara bar associations as well as their board members.
Statement on European Union’s new Global Human Rights Sanctions (The Magnitsky Law) and Turkey We, the undersigned organizations, welcome the European Union’s new Global Human Rights Sanctions (The Magnitsky Law) regime which will enable the EU to address serious human… Read More ›
Impunity provisions enacted with Decree Law nos. 667, 668, 696 During the state of emergency rule between 2016 and 2018, the Turkish Government enacted thirty-two emergency decrees which were later approved by the Turkish Parliament and have become ordinary… Read More ›
Amnesty International published a report on the recent mass-arrests (11 September 2020) of lawyers in Ankara. Amnesty concluded that lawyers were detained solely for exercising the legal profession and therefore should be immediately and unconditionally released.
Rapporteurs from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have expressed their concern over the situation of lawyers in Turkey after a series of worrying developments.
22 NGOs and Bar Associations across the World condemned the ongoing mass-arrest campaigns against Turkish lawyers.
Within the scope of our new project we are publishing interviews with prominent European lawyers, academics and executives of judges’ associations. Our fourth interview is with Filipe Marques who is the president of MEDEL – Magistrats Européens pour la Démocratie et les… Read More ›
The statistics highlight that Turkish public prosecutors have filed more than 392,000 charges under Article 314 of the Turkish Penal Code within the last seven-years. What is worse, between 2016 and 2019 more than 220,000 individuals have been sentenced for membership of an armed terrorist organisation.
Istanbul Heavy Penal Court has sentenced Taner Kılıç, former chair of Amnesty Turkey, to 6 years and 3 months under Article 314 § 2 of Turkish Penal Code which stipulates the membership of an armed terrorist organisation. İdil Eser former director of Amnesty Turkey, Özlem Dalkıran of Citizens’ Assembly and Günal Kurşun of the Human Rights Agenda Association were all convicted for 25 months for assisting a terrorist organisation.
Law no. 7242’s amendments worsen already existing injustice in Turkey’s criminal justice system. The notorious mob leader, Alaattin Cakici, was released as soon as President Erdogan approved the amendments, while the award winning author, Ahmet Altan, hundreds of lawyers and journalists, remain in prison. Considering that, only in Izmir (Buca) Prison, 65 inmates tested COVID19, this danger is not remote, imagined or simply feared but actual and imminent. Therefore, we must continue to advocate on their behalf to show they are not forsaken.
The German Federal Constitutional Court (GFCC) decided a lower court’s decision ordering the extradition of an individual to Turkey violated German law and Germany’s obligation deriving from international law.
The GFCC ruled that Turkey highly will not respect minimum standards deriving from international law. Therefore, an extradition decision which relied on the assurances provided by the Turkish government that the prosecution was not based on political grounds was unlawful and thus should be annulled.
Our third interview is with Irma van den Berg who is the president of Lawyers for Lawyers, since 1 July 2019. Ms Berg is a lawyer at Six Advocaten and has served as a board member of Lawyers for Lawyers for the last 10 years.
The @ArrestedLawyers Initiative published a factsheet on Turkey’s state of emergency dismissals. It includes the latest statistics on the Inquiry Commission’s work, criteria applied for the dismissals and the definition of the connection and cohesion made by Ankara Regional Appeal Court.
