Open Letter 23.3.2000

The Danish Centre for Human Rights, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network and the Kurdish Human Rights Project (UK) today forwarded the following letter to the Turkish Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Justice.

Your Excellency,

The Danish Cenre for Human Rights, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) and the Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP) are deeply concerned that Akin Birdal is due to resume his term of imprisonment today, and that repeated charges and court cases are launched against him.

Mr. Birdal is the founder of the Turkish Human Rights Association and a well-known human rights defender. On 3 June 1999, he was convicted to nine month and 15 days imprisonment on the charges of "inciting people explicitly to hatred and hostility by making discrimination based on class, race, region, religious sects or opinion" under article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code for publicly advocating a peaceful approach to the Kurdish issue. On 25 September 1999, Akin Birdal was temporarily released for six months for medical reasons. However, despite the fact that he was banned from leaving the country and thus prevented from receiving the specialised medical treatment needed, he is due to.resume his term of imprisonment, today 23 March, 2000.

Mr. Birdal has been sentenced to two one-year prison terms under article 312, which several times has been held to contravene the right to freedom of expression by the European Court of Human Rights. On 21 March 2000 he had to appear before the State Security Court in Adana for a third court case facing the same charges on the background of a speech calling for the use of peaceful means to solve conflicts.

On the background of the above information, the Danish Centre for Human Rights, the EMHRN and the KHRP (UK) ask your Excellency to do your utmost in:

serving to prevent that Akin Birdal has to resume his tern of imprisonment
ensuring that the right to freedom of expression, explicitly stated in the European Convention on Human Rights to which Turkey is a state party, is respected
guaranteeing that Turkey respects its commitments to the human rights principles embodied in the Barcelona Declaration of November 1995.
ensuring that Turkey abides by the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the UN on 9 December 1998