ISTANBUL (Turkish Minute) — Amnesty International’s 2024-2025 report, published on Tuesday, April 29, said human rights violations continued in Turkey and emphasized the ongoing lack of judicial independence, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported.
According to the report, the crackdown on freedom of expression in Turkey continued, with authorities facing little accountability for alleged mistreatment and torture of detainees. Violence against women and LGBTQ+ individuals continued at an alarming rate, while refugees and migrants continued to be unlawfully returned to Syria and Afghanistan. Additionally, the independence of the judiciary was heavily compromised, leading to politically motivated trials and the suppression of dissent, ultimately undermining the credibility of the legal system.
The report found that despite court rulings calling for their release, human rights advocates and pro-Kurdish political leaders remained imprisoned as the government’s crackdown on human rights advocacy efforts persisted.
An example it pointed to was the continued imprisonment of businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala despite a 2019 European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruling that found his detention aimed to silence him for political reasons. Kavala was listed as one among many human rights defenders who have been incarcerated over the years.
Kurdish political leader Selahattin Demirtaş was also mentioned as unlawfully imprisoned. Demirtaş has been jailed since November 2016, in defiance of a 2020 ECtHR judgment stating that his detention served to suppress pluralism and restrict political debate.
At the time of their arrests, Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ co-chaired Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). In May 2024 Demirtaş received a 42-year sentence and Yüksekdağ 30 years, on charges of “undermining state unity” and “inciting criminal acts.”
