Report documents rights violations in Kurdish-majority regions in 2020

Photo: İHD

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The Human Rights Association (İHD) has released its human rights violations 2020 report in the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolian regions.

There was a "systematic increase" in human rights violations in the region caused by the government's "authoritarian and centralist policies," the association said in a written statement yesterday (February 11).

"In our region, the government's authoritarian and security-based approach to the Kurdish issue was a determining factor in the increase in violations," it said.

The 215-page report was based on applications to the association and open sources and documented rights violations in several categories: the right to life, torture and maltreatment, preventions and interference with the right to demonstrate, violations in prisons, violations of freedom of expression and organization, violations of freedom of the press, violence against women and losses of rights in economic and social rights.

Here are some highlights of the report:

• Forty-three law enforcement officers and 218 militants lost their lives in the conflict, 30 law enforcement officers were wounded. One civilian lost his/her life after being caught in the middle of clashes. At least 15 civilians were killed during attacks targeting law enforcement officers.
• At least 109 citizens were subjected to torture and maltreatment in detention, during home raids, in the streets and in prisons.
• At least 496 political prisoners were sent to prisons far away from their families for no reason or because of their political stances. Fifty-four prisoners were subjected to torture and maltreatment during their transfers.
• There are 1,065 ill prisoners in Turkey with 604 of them being severely ill.
• Gatherings and demonstrations, which are guaranteed by article 34 of the Constitution, were unlawfully banned by governors and sub-governors.
• Law enforcement officers intervened in at least 19 demonstrations. Governors and sub-governors issued 72 orders banning gatherings and demonstrations.
• Gatherings and demonstrations have been banned in Van province for more than four years.
• The ban on the İHD's weekly protest with the slogan "The missing ones should be found, those who are responsible should stand trial" has been banned since September 1, 2018. (AS/VK)