HRW: New draft law would end rule of law in Turkey
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - A draft law being rushed through Turkey’s parliament would, if passed, preserve many of the abusive powers granted to the president and executive under the country’s recently canceled state of emergency, charged Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday.
The day before, Turkey lifted the controversial measure that had given security services increased powers of arrest and detention for the past two years. On the very same day, lawmakers began discussing the new bill.
“The end of Turkey’s state of emergency should have been a good sign for human rights, but the draft law makes clear that the government’s plan is to end it in name only,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at HRW in a statement released after the bill's introduction.
The international human rights organization said it is worried that the proposed law will allow authorities under the presidency, for the next three years, to dismiss judges and all other public officials arbitrarily.
It also would allow authorities to restrict movement within Turkey, ban public assemblies, and allow police to hold some suspects for up to 12 days without charge and repeatedly detain them in the same investigation.
Ankara imposed the state of emergency in the wake of a failed attempt to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) government in July 2016, for which it blames US-based Turkish Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen and his sympathizers within the army.
Opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has long argued that Erdogan was using the state of emergency to cripple the opposition and institutions. Now, the opposition fears the ruling party will continue to stifle dissent.
The new draft law would further normalize the emergency powers, according to HRW.
It is expected to be submitted to Parliament’s general assembly and become law in the coming days, despite strong resistance from parliamentary opposition.
“The government should scrap this law and fully restore human rights and the rule of law in Turkey,” read the HRW statement.
It continued by describing that the draft law gives the government authority for three years to dismiss from office any public official, judge, prosecutor, military personnel, or police officer “assessed to have been members of or acted in union with or been in contact with terrorist organizations or structures, entities or groups that the National Security Council has decided are engaged in activities against national security.”
“The powers to dismiss any judge, to ban any assembly by restricting peoples’ movement, and to arrest people over and over again for the same offense in this draft law are evidence that the state of emergency will continue in all but name,” Williamson said.
“The state of emergency may have ended but so has the rule of law.”
Editing by John J. Catherine