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Human rights threat in Turkey

Independent medical centres in Turkey which document torture have come under pressure in the lead-up to a United Nations conference in June.

The respected Turkish Human Rights Foundation began setting up centres to document cases of torture and rehabilitate victims in 1990. It has centres in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Adana and has treated more than 2,500 torture victims. The Foundation has backing from the UN, Amnesty International, the Red Cross and the European Union.

In late 1995, the Foundation claims the Ministry of Foreign Affairs began a widespread campaign to discredit the torture centres. They say the Ministry sent a letter sent to the Ministries of Health and Justice allegeing that the Foundation’s centres have been making false claims about torture for political reasons.

By April, the Health Ministry and the Ankara Chief Public Prosecution Office had begun investigations into the claims and the Foundation says they are demanding information such as the addresses and names of torture victims treated by the centres and the addresses and names of voluntary medical doctors who work at the centres. The Foundation has rejected these demands on various grounds, for example, that they are against medical ethics.

The Ministry of Health has reportedly written to regional governors and health centres calling for them to prevent the torture centres’ work. The UN and the European Parliament have long criticised Turkey’s record on torture.