Turkish Laws Violate Right to Speech, Association and Assembly

Turkish Laws Violate Right to Speech, Association and Assembly

By Ricardo Zamora

Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ISTANBUL, Turkey – In a report released today, Human Rights Watch revealed that Turkey, through anti-terror laws, seeks to prosecute peaceful demonstrators as though they were armed militants.  Human Rights Watch cautions that such sweeping laws violate freedom of expression, association, and assembly.

After a suicide bombing during a Kurdish demonstration in Istanbul yesterday, local authorities are seeking to prosecute many attendees even though they were not involved in the bombing itself.

This is not a new approach for the Turkish government.  Over the past three years, courts have prosecuted demonstrators through the use of the 2005 Turkish Penal Code and case law.  Hundreds of Kurdish demonstrators are currently incarcerated awaiting the outcome of their trials or appeals.

“When it comes to the Kurdish question, the courts in Turkey are all too quick to label political opposition as terrorism,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey researched at Human Rights Watch and author of the report.  “When you close off the space for free speech and association, it has the counterproductive effect of making armed opposition more attractive.”

In July, parliament amended laws to prevent the prosecution of Kurdish children who attend such demonstrations and quashed any current convictions.  However, Turkey’s approach to handling adults went unchanged.

Now, Human Rights Watch is calling Turkey to similarly amend its approach to the prosecution of Kurdish adults in related cases.

“Ending the prosecution under these laws of most child demonstrators was an important step forward,” Sinclair-Webb said. “But allowing laws clearly aimed at terrorism to be used against adult demonstrators inflicts immense damage on free expression, assembly, and association in Turkey.”

The report documents many “violations” which authorities found sufficiently severe to subject otherwise legal demonstrators from being subject to Turkey’s anti-terror laws and penalties.  For example, several individuals have been convicted for simply shouting slogans, making victory signs and throwing stones.  Sentences handed down for those offenses range from 10 years and 5 months to 11 years and 3 months.

“The government should complete the task of reform by changing laws relating to adult demonstrators, to bring them fully into line with Turkey’s human rights obligations,” Sinclair-Webb said.  “Throwing people in jail is not way to halt terrorism – or protest.”

For more information, please see:

IFEX – HRW Report Shows Terrorism Laws Used to Jail Kurdish Protesters – November 1, 2010

Human Rights Watch – Turkey: Terrorism Laws Used to Jail Kurdish Protesters – November 1, 2010

Monsters & Critics – Turkey Accused of Using Terror Laws to Stifle Kurdish Protests – November 1, 2010

Brazil’s First Woman President Addresses Equality

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

Rousseff shakes hands with supporters after her win. (Photo courtesy of Globe and Mail)
Rousseff shakes hands with supporters after her win. (Photo courtesy of Globe and Mail)

BRASILIA, Brazil—On Sunday, Brazil elected the country’s first woman president, Dilma Rousseff.  President-elect Rousseff received 56% of the vote, and has become the eighth elected woman president in Latin America and the Caribbean.  She has vowed to defend women’s rights, echoing Barack Obama’s motto “Yes, we can,” by saying, “Yes, women can.”

After her victory on Sunday, Rousseff proclaimed, “Equal opportunities for men and women are an essential principle of democracy.  I would like for fathers and mothers to look into their daughters’ eyes today and tell them: ‘Yes, women can.’ I would like to register my first post-election commitment: to honor Brazilian women so that this unprecedented fact becomes a natural event.”  She went on to say that she will work towards women gaining opportunities “in businesses, civil institutions . . . and in the whole of our society.”

Many are hopeful that Brazil’s first female president will be successful in implementing important advances in gender equality.  Sociologist Fátima Pacheco Jordão opined: “Most important in this feminist-tinged speech was that she described the advance of gender equality issues as one of the foundations of democracy.  Never has a [Brazilian] president treated the gender question in this way.”

It is believed that the president-elect will promote certain women to higher governmental offices.  Yet Jordão is hesitant to expect massive reform under Rousseff, noting that most senior cabinet members will still be men.  According to Jordão, “The proportion of women in politics in Brazil is very limited, worse than many Latin American countries and several in Africa.”

Rousseff had been imprisoned and tortured for three years in the 1970s for opposing Brazil’s then-dictatorship.  More recently, she served under former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as Chief of Staff for the last five years.  She ran for president as the candidate for the Workers Party.

Brazil is ranked as the world’s eighth largest economy.  Rousseff, 62, will take office on January 1 of next year.

For more information, please see:

Guardian-‘Yes, women can’-Brazil’s first ‘presidenta’ pledges gender equality-1 November 2010

CBS-Obama telephones Brazil’s president-elect Rousseff-1 November 2010

Examiner-Brazil elects its first female president, Dilma Rousseff-1 November 2010

Eight-months-pregnant Woman forced into abortion in China

By Joseph Juhn
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

Xiao Aiying allowed cameras to film her in the hospital after being beaten and forced into abortion by government officials. (Photo Courtesy of Al Jazeera)

BEIJING, China – Twelve government officials entered into Xiao Aiying’s house where they kicked Xiao in the stomach before dragging her out of the house. Apparently, she was eight-months pregnant, which violated China’s one-child-per-family law. The officials said she and her husband already had a daughter. Xiao was then taken to nearby hospital where she was forced to have an abortion. The 36-year-old was restrained as doctors injected her with a drug to kill the fetus.

Her husband, Luo Yanquan, described the moment when officials burst into his home to Al Jazeera.

“They held her hands behind her back and pushed her head against the wall and kicked her in the stomach,” he said. “I don’t know if they were trying to give her a miscarriage.”

He also told Al Jazeera that they were informed by officials a month prior to the due date that they weren’t allowed to give birth to the new baby because they already have a daughter.

It’s been 30 years since the Chinese government implemented and began enforcing one-child-policy to reduce the 1.3 billion-plus population and cut unsustainable demand on resources.

This policy leads to an estimated 13 million abortions every year, with many of those ordered by local authorities. This kind of forced abortion is illegal in China, but such banning doesn’t prohibit or define late-term abortions.

When asked about the event, one official in the district where Mrs. Lou lives said that the procedure was undertaken voluntarily by Mrs. Lou and she consented to such an abortion, a claim which both of Lou’s strongly deny.

Mrs. Lou allowed Al Jazeera’s reporter to secretly interview and film her in hospital, but feared official retribution after making their ordeal a public one. In the footage she can be seen with large bruises on her arms.

“I have had this baby, feeling it moving around and around my belly. Can you imagine how I feel now,” she said.

Mrs. Lou’s experience comes a month after the government in Beijing said there would be no change of relaxation in strict family planning laws.

“Our ten-year-old daughter has been excited about having a little brother or sister but I don’t know how I can explain to her what has happened,” Mr. Lou said.

For more information, please see:

The Daily Mail – China forces woman into abortion at EIGHT months for breaching one-child policy – 22 October 2010

The Uyghur News – China’s One-Child Policy Forces Woman to Have Abortion at 8 Months – 25 October 2010

Metro – China ‘forces’ woman into having abortion while eight months pregnant – 22 October 2010