Turkey before UPR 2014: Where Privatization Turns Anti-poor
On 15 June 2014, HIC-HLRN and HIC’s Member organization Kent Hareketler (Urban Movements)- Istanbul submitted a joint report on the Republic of Turkey, which state will come under review a the Human Rights Council’s 21st session in January–February 2015.
The joint report reviewed the negative impact of the Turkey’s government in applying its privatization polices at the expense of economic, social and cultural rights. The violations have been carried out by way of housing and urban-planning policies oriented in favor of international and local profit, instead of prioritizing national and public interests.
The report exposed three main issues resulting from the privatization polices that have harmed the country’s poor, further marginalizing minorities and vulnerable groups such as Kurds, trans-sexuals and Roma people by targeting them for removal in favor of private real-estate investment schemes in greater Istanbul and other cities.
The consequent forced evictions form a pattern of violations by both commission and omission since the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002. The report found that the AKP hasfailed ever since to uphold its economic and social rights obligations to take necessary steps to ensure nondiscrimination in the continuous improvement of living conditions for the state’s population.
Forced eviction and property dispossession form the most-dramatic examples in the implementation of urban-renewal projects and the privatization of public properties in the big cities, specifically in Istanbul. Since 2002, the ruling party has taken steps to legitimize forced eviction and privatization the public institutions as implementing “urban transformation, ”while the practice has taken place capricious and without environmental protection or consultations with the affected communities. This, under taking expropriations that contradict the Turkish Constitution’s provisions protecting property rights. The incremental and mass forced evictions have spiked the number of persons rendered homeless, dispossessed and living in extreme poverty across the country outside of militaryoperations. The current “urban transformation” policy has affected the Roma community most of all, displacing10, 000 Roma over the past seven years. In the same period, the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing raised concerns over Law No. 6306, which she found“may lead to mass forced evictions, infringements on the rights to property and housing, and to an increased number of people made homeless, or in worse housing and living conditions than they were prior to the bill’s implementation.”
The report also highlighted violations caused by the policies of the water privatization and building hydroelectric dams not only affecting the rights of Turkey’s citizens, but also other people in the neighborhood countries and their right to water. Moreover, serious corruption has been detected related to the privatization of water and wastewater services. This pattern also has shown how the privatization process in Turkey greatly threaten natural resources of the country and derogate the rights of communities to access water. TheIlisu Dam project represents a significant example that Turkey has breached its extraterritorial obligations to respect, protect and fulfill the human rights to food and water of thousands of farmers across its border with Iraq. The Dam additionally spells destruction of the ancient town of Hasankeyf, and displacement of more than 78,000 people, mainly Kurds, from their homes and farms.
The joint report also covered the human rights issues related to Cypriot lands and homes, citing how Turkish occupation practices have confiscated 82% of indigenous Cypriot properties, displaced 200,000 Cypriots and deprived them of their right to return to their homes.
The report also noted related legal developmentsduring the period of the current UPR review (2010–present). For example, the European Court for Human Rights held that Turkey was required to pay Cyprus €30,000,000 in non pecuniary damages to the relatives of the missing persons suffered since the decade-old invasion and occupation, and €60,000,000 in non pecuniary damages that the enclaved Greek-Cypriot residents of the occupied Karpas Peninsula have suffered since 1974.
Finally, the joint report presented several recommendations for the Council to present to the Turkish government consistent with the state’s domestic and extraterritorial obligations to respect, protect and fulfill economic, social and cultural rights. The report, therefore, addressed an omissionof the Human Rights Commission itselfby having evaded these human rights issues in its last UPR of Turkey, four years ago.
For further information, see the HIC-HLRN/Urban Movements – Istanbul submission
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