E/CN. 4/1989/15
page 48
233. As has been said before, the Government of Turkey has taken highly
significant measures at the international level to promote respect for
human rights in general and the prohibition of torture in particular. The
Special Rapporteur feels that these measures could be supplemented in a
meaningful way by taking measures at the national level. The following
recommendations may, therefore, be made:
(a) It is a well known fact that torture takes place most frequently
during periods of incommunicado detention. In all previous reports the
Special Raporteur has recommended the abolition of incommunicado detention.
He may, therefore, recommend to the Turkish Government that it should
introduce legal provisions guaranteeing that an arrested person has the right
to have a lawyer appointed within 24 hours of his arrest. If the authorities
feel that the arrested person cannot be allowed to appoint a lawyer of his own
choice for the reasons mentioned in paragraph 216, he should be given the
opportunity to appoint a lawyer from a list drawn up by an independent
professional organization. Once a lawyer has been appointed, he should be
given regular access to the detainee throughout the whole period of detention;
(b) If a person files a complaint that he has been tortured during his
detention, medical examination of that person could be entrusted to a doctor,
chosen from a panel of qualified and experienced physicians; such a panel
could be established by an independent professional organization;
(c) The investigation of torture complaints could be carried out by an
independent (ombudsman-type) body which, after the investigation is concluded,
would transmit the case to the public prosecutor for further action (either
dismissal or court action);
(d) Implementation of recommendations (b) and (c) would strengthen the
feeling that torture complaints are taken seriously. It would also serve to
prevent the filing of unfounded complaints;
(e) In cases where a complaint of torture has been found to be correct,
severe penalties should be imposed;
(f) Evidence obtained by torture should under no circumstances, be
admitted in court, nor should it be accepted as supplementary evidence. No
one should be convicted on the basis of evidence which has allegedly been
obtained by torture, unless the allegation is manifestly unfounded;
(g) Training programmes for law enforcement personnel should give high
priority to the necessity of respecting basic human rights under all
circumstances. In this context it may be recommended that the Code of Conduct
for Law Enforcement Officials and the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment
of Prisoners should be translated into Turkish and used as material in the
teaching programmes.
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents