TURKISH PRISONS REPORT

Human rights violations in Turkey’s prisons deeply shake the concepts of social justice and human dignity. The Turkish Prisons Report (2016 – 2024), prepared by Stichting Justice Square, reveals systematic rights violations ranging from negligence that threatens the right to life of sick detainees and convicts to the inhumane conditions imposed on pregnant women and mothers with children.

The report particularly sheds light on the situation of sick detainees and convicts, deaths, suicides, and the conditions of ill, postpartum, and child-rearing women in prisons. The striking data and case studies presented in the report expose the dark reality of Turkey’s prisons: increasing deaths due to inadequate healthcare services, suicides under prison conditions, and worsening victimization through arbitrary and discriminatory treatment.

It is explicitly emphasized that the systematic, discriminatory, and hate-driven practices carried out by the Erdoğan regime may constitute crimes against humanity under international law.

The Turkish judiciary has lost its impartiality in the face of these incidents. Instead of investigating and prosecuting prison violations and acts of torture, it has legitimized them through its rulings. Judicial institutions that have turned into instruments of the regime—such as the Offices of the Chief Public Prosecutor, the Criminal Peace Judgeships, and the Court of Cassation—ensure impunity for these violations through their decisions while also violating the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the Rome Statute, and other national and international legal norms.

This report serves as a strong call to restore justice in a system where human dignity is disregarded. Addressing numerous issues in detail, from the rights of sick detainees and convicts to children growing up in prisons, it sheds light on Turkey’s struggle for justice and human rights. It stands as a key reference for human rights defenders, legal professionals, and anyone concerned with social justice.