ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s long-awaited human rights action plan fails to acknowledge a significant deterioration in individual freedoms over the past decade, critics claim.
The plan, which was prepared with EU funding of 1.3 million Turkish liras ($177,000), was unveiled by the Turkish leader on Tuesday.
Erdogan said that the ultimate aim of the action plan “is a new civilian constitution.”
The plan seeks to strengthen freedom of expression, international human rights standards and the judicial system, but neglects to detail specific measures concerning arbitrary detentions, long-term imprisonment or restrictions on demonstrations.
However, legal experts and ordinary citizens expect not more words, but deeds from the country’s rulers in light of Turkey’s weak record on human rights, with the imprisonment of thousands of journalists, politicians and rights activists on terror-related charges.
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ANKARA: The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) put rights violation cases in Turkey under the spotlight this month with several rulings on its agenda. On Dec. 15, the European top court ruled that the Turkish government violated the rights of an employee who was dismissed by a state of emergency decree. The court said that Turkey violated the employee’s right to a fair trial and right to respect for his private and family life after he was sacked from his post at the public administration over claims of his links to terror groups. ECtHR ruled that, even in cases where national security had to be considered, the principles of lawfulness and the rule of law should be applied when taking measures that affect an individual’s fundamental rights.