Onen: EU is Narrowing the Torture Definition
He said the expression "bad treatment" was being used instead of the word "torture," in the reports.
Onen, who spoke at a foundation meeting on April 4, said he had met with a number of representatives from the EU Commission last year and also spoke about allegations that TIHV uses the word 'torture' to define a very wide variety of treatments.
Onen said the change in the usage of the word "torture" was partly caused by Turkey's EU membership process, and partly because the definition of "torture" in the whole world is being narrowed down since 2001.
Narrowing down UN's definition of torture
Onen said, in addition to the representatives of EU Commission, the Council of Euope's Commission for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) had also began using the expression "bad treatment" instead of "torture" since the year 2000, in its reports it wrote after visiting Turkey.
Onen said:
* CPT describes as "violent methods of physical bad treatment," the acts of hanging from the arms, electrifying genitalia and ears, depriving one of sleep for days, keeping one standing up for a long time, threats against a detainee or his/her family, beating, cold water baths, beating the soles of the feet and squeezing testicles.
* We are witnessing a similar approach from the EU. However, our foundation interprets U.N.'s definition of torture as a whole and accepts as "torture" any violent act described as "bad treatment."
EU membership, Afghanistan, Guantanamo
Yavuz Onen answered our question on why the EU's approach had changed:
* This approach was shaped after the Maastricht agreement about EU expansion was accepted in 1992 and after Turkey was made an EU candidate in 1999. We can see that the word "torture" began to vanish from CPT reports after 2000. Besides CPT, the EU circles also began replacing "torture" with "bad treatment" after 2001.
* This is partly a result of the understanding that "Turkey as a candidate country, will overcome the problem of torture under its own conditions." And it can also be seen as partly the effort of the EU to be on the record that "torture is out of question in a candidate country."
* And the developments in the world are that way too. There is an inclination to tell the world that the acts in Afghanistan and Guantanamo do not count as torture.
Onen also referred to the questioning methods used in terrorism cases. "For example, a jurist at Harvard University in the U.S. said electrifying or other methods that cause pain may be used," he said. (YS/BB/EA/YE)