Universal Periodic Review: A Test In Which Turkey Performed Negatively

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) which is carried out by the United Nations Human Rights Council is a unique process that involves a review of the human rights records of all UN member states. The UPR is a state-driven process, under the auspices of the council, which provides the opportunity for each state to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfill their human rights obligations. As one of the main elements of the council, the UPR is designed to ensure equal treatment for each country in the assessment of human rights.
The UPR was created by the UN General Assembly on March 15, 2006 by Resolution 60/251, which established the Human Rights Council itself. It is a cooperative process which, by October 2011, had reviewed the human rights records of all 193 UN member states. Currently no other universal mechanism of this kind exists. The UPR is one of the key elements of the council, and it reminds states of their responsibility to fully respect and implement all human rights and fundamental freedoms. The ultimate aim of this mechanism is to improve the human rights situation in all countries and address human rights violations wherever they occur.

This week, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç was in Geneva for the 21st session of the UPR, during which Turkey is on the list of the countries to be examined. The Human Rights Joint Platform, consisting of five human rights organizations in Turkey, including the Human Rights Agenda Association, submitted a report to the UN months ago in order to identify Turkey's human rights problems more accurately. Several other rights-based organizations also reported current problems in the country, which is a key tool for other countries to raise issues during Turkey's examination by the council. Arınç was surprised to be faced with 122 countries' questions, which is a record number.

Although freedom of expression was the most popular subject for Turkey to be confronted with, equal treatment to LGBT persons, the possible opening of the Halki Seminary of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the recognition of Alevi places of worship, the protection of minorities, occupational health and safety measures --especially in mines -- the effectiveness of a national human rights institute and ombudsman, steps to be taken on hate crimes, anti-discrimination legislation, violence against women, children's rights and the International Criminal Court (ICC) were some of the subjects that were raised by other countries. By the way, a few questions were quite significant for me. “Is the government of Turkey considering [its] penal code as well as the Internet Law and Anti-Terrorism Law in line with international and European standards?” was one of them. Also, “What has the government of Turkey done to address the concerns regarding the lack of accountability related to excessive use of force by security and law enforcement forces and the non-compliance of policing of demonstrations in Turkey with international human rights law?” and “What steps has the government of Turkey taken to ensure that human rights defenders and journalists can pursue their profession without fear of prosecution or other forms of harassment?” These were the three key questions Arınç had to answer.

It was no surprise for me that Arınç did not use his famous “The parallel structure of the Hizmet movement is responsible for all negative things in Turkey” argument, because he definitely knows that it will be a very absurd position to take abroad. Instead, he tried to seem cold-blooded and deal with all of the questions without saying anything concrete, just like a master politician. However, that will not be enough to convince other countries on Turkey's human rights records, as it requires realistic approaches to fully answer all of these important questions.

The Palestinian politician Ismail Haniyeh said: “Some people think that the truth can be hidden with a little cover-up and decoration. But as time goes by, what is true is revealed, and what is fake fades away.” If only Turkish politicians could act as realistically as their Palestinian counterparts.

GÜNAL KURŞUN (Cihan/Today's Zaman)