On 15 December 2020, The Open Dialogue Foundation signed a joint statement together with 10 other NGOs demanding relevant bodies of the EU to examine the current situation in Turkey in the context of the Global Human Rights Sanction regime and to impose sanctions on those who violate human rights in the country. The Arrested Lawyers Initiative, a volunteer organisation defending prosecuted lawyers and human rights defenders, initiated the joint statement.
As a long-term supporter and advocate of the Global Magnitsky Act, ODF welcomes the new Global Human Rights Sanctions regime which will provide the EU with a framework that can address serious human rights abuses worldwide. The recently adopted framework applies to instances of genocide, crimes against humanity and other serious human rights violations or abuses. Furthermore, the undersigned organisations stress the important role and interest of the EU in fighting violations of human rights globally.
The statement on the Turkish situation is crucial as human rights, democracy and the rule of law have been deteriorating over the last years. Not only are civil society and opposition groups are subjected to torture, ill-treatment, and arbitrary detention; the country is responsible for being the largest imprisonor of lawyers, human rights defenders and journalists as well. In addition, as the statement points out “more than 500,000 individuals have been subjected to criminal investigation, 330,000 have been indicted, and 220,000 convicted, under Turkey’s anti-terror law, which has been found to be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights and the ICCPR by the ECtHR and the UN bodies.”
See also:
- The Open Dialogue Foundation supports the adoption of Australian legislation comparable to the Global Magnitsky Act (3 February 2020)
- Magnitsky sanctions against officials misappropriating COVID-19 funds. Appeal to the U.S. government (9 July 2020)
- Letter in support of Global Magnitsky Enforcement (5 May 2020)