Turkey Tribunal has tackled major cases, defending Turkish citizens, whose rights are being violated by their own government, before international courts.
CAIRO – 22 August 2020: A tribunal will be held in Geneva next September on the human rights violations committed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government.
Turkey Tribunal, a not-for-profit human rights organization registered in Belgium, will hold the session on September 21 and 25.
"The tribunal is not a legally binding body. But the ruling of the tribunal will have high moral authority," Turkey Tribunal said in a press statement.
Turkey Tribunal was founded by the Belgium-based Van Steenbrugge Advocaten (VSA) law firm that has handled various cases for Turkish citizens in international courts.
Reports detailing torture, systems of impunity against torture and mistreatment, the situation of lawyers and medical assistance for the imprisoned or detained in Turkey will be presented, Ahval reported.
Several international organizations have called on the tribunal to address the Turkish military’s war crimes in Syria and Libya, as well as successive Erdogan governments’ links with terrorist groups.
Turkey Tribunal has tackled major cases, defending Turkish citizens, whose rights are being violated by their own government, before international courts.
The tribunal's judges consist of: Françoise Barones Tulkens, former judge and vice president of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR); Johann van der Westhuizen, former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa; Elisabeth Abi, former deputy executive secretary of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; Giorgio Malinverni and Ledi Bianku, former judges at the ECHR; as well as John Pace, the former secretary to the Commission on Human Rights.
Several human rights experts and organizations will provide reports to the tribunal, including; Eric Sottas, the former secretary-general of the World Organization against Torture; the Lawyers Collective in Turkey; Sebnem Korur Fincancı, the president of the Human Rights Foundation in Turkey; the Ankara Bar Association; as well as Philippe Leruth, the former president of the International Federation of Journalists.
Turkey has been suffering major rights violations, especially after the alleged failed July 2016 coup against Erdogan.
The Turkish government has jailed some 80,000 people and sacked more than 150,000 from their state jobs as part of a nationwide crackdown.
Security forces have since then committed grave violations against the people and opposition political groups, as documented by various international rights organizations.
In 2018, Turkey was placed second among 140 countries in violating the ECHR.
ECHR also last October ruled that Turkey violated the freedom of expression of a high-ranking member of pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), which was banned in 2009 by Turkey’s constitutional court, Mezopotamya news agency reported.
Executive control and political influence over the judiciary in Turkey has led to courts systematically accepting bogus indictments - detaining and convicting without compelling evidence of criminal activity individuals and groups the Turkish government regards as political opponents, Ahval added.
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