UN rights report slams Turkey, Turkey says 'unacceptable'

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The protracted state of emergency in Turkey has caused serious human rights abuses against "hundreds of thousands of people", including killings, torture and arbitrary detention, the United Nations warned Tuesday, while Turkey commented the report as "biased" and "unacceptable".

A state of emergency imposed in Turkey following the attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016, and repeatedly extended since then, has had dramatic consequences, the UN rights office said in a report published Tuesday.

UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein described the findings as "alarming" and "outrageous". "The numbers are just staggering: nearly 160,000 people arrested during an 18-month state of emergency," he said in a statement.

United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein looking on during a press conference at the UN Offices in Geneva on August 30, 2017. /VCG Photo

"One of the most alarming findings of the report," Mr Zeid said, "is how Turkish authorities reportedly detained some 100 women who were pregnant or had just given birth, mostly on the grounds that they were 'associates' of their husbands, who are suspected of being connected to terrorist organizations."

"Some were detained with their children and others violently separated from them. This is simply outrageous, utterly cruel and surely cannot have anything whatsoever to do with making the country safer," he said.

He pointed to the "152,000 civil servants dismissed, many totally arbitrarily, teachers, judges and lawyers dismissed or prosecuted, journalists arrested, media outlets shut down and websites blocked."

"Clearly the successive states of emergency declared in Turkey have been used to severely and arbitrarily curtail the human rights of a very large number of people," he added.

A journalist holds a placard reading "free media" during a demonstration for the World Press Freedom Day on the Istiklal avenue, in Istanbul, on May 3, 2017. /VCG Photo

The report urged Turkey to "promptly end the state of emergency and restore the normal functioning of institutions and the rule of law."

In a furious reaction to the report, the Turkish foreign ministry accused the UN rights chief of turning his agency into an organization that collaborates with "terror" groups.

"(The report), which contains distorted, biased and false information, is unacceptable for Turkey."

Source(s): AFP