On 7 October 2015, Lawyers for Lawyers and Fair Trial Watch (FTW) presented a petition to the Permanent Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In this petition the organizations raised concerns about the recent developments in Turkey, the human rights violations and the impunity.
Lawyers for Lawyers and FTW ask the Dutch government to strongly urge the Turkish government to:
– Set up an independent and impartial investigation into the recent events whereby deaths have occurred at the hands of the police and the security services
– Ensure that the police and the security services do not use disproportionate violence in their actions and that they respect human rights
– Guarantee the principles of a democratic Rule of Law system, so that the judiciary, prosecutors and lawyers can exercise their duties independently
After a truce of more than two years and negotiations between the Turkish government and the Kurdish PKK, since July 2015 the fighting has flared up again. In recent months, dozens of civilians, soldiers and PKK fighters have been killed during the fighting.
Also lawyers are systematically prevented from exercising their profession. To raise awareness for this, three Turkish lawyers accompanied Lawyers for Lawyers and FTW at the presentation of a report about the human rights violations in Cisre, which led to the deaths of 23 civilians.
