Impunity Report is Published!

Year: 2014
Original Title: The Problem of Impunity: Investigation Phase
Author: Gülşah Kurt
Source: Truth Justice Memory Center

The Truth Justice Memory Center has published its new report titled “The Problem of Impunity: Investigation Phase”. Written by Gülşah Kurt, the report addresses the problem of impunity in the context of the investigation phases of gross human rights violations.

“Impunity”, as a State tradition displaying continuity in Turkey, is an area of problems we widely come across in cases where public officials are responsible of gross human rights violations. The outcome of impunity, on the one hand, legitimizes the unlawful activities of soldiers, gendarmes, village guards or police officers, while on the other hand lends support to the persistence of the tradition of protecting perpetrators in administrative and judicial practice. In our opinion, this zone of protection created for the perpetrators forms the crux of the problem.

Therefore, there can be no doubt that every field that contributes to impunity requires deep analyses. The determination and elimination of problems related to legislation form one of the highest priority requirements. Therefore, this report has been prepared as a contribution to studies investigating the relationship in Turkey between the problem of impunity and legislation.

The report, along with the acknowledgement that the phenomenon of impunity is a multi-faceted, integrated field of problems ranging from investigation and prosecution phases to the enforcement stage, and from the right to truth to elimination mechanisms, focused on the criminal investigation phase in order to carry out a detailed examination.

In the report, laws and the implementation of these laws that pave the way for impunity, and also the current mindset patterns of the judiciary have been assessed with examples, with the aim of determining defective or problematic fields. The way the issue is addressed in international legal documents was conveyed via, among others, a comparative analysis of the regulatory procedures of the administration, changes in laws and old and new regulations, an analysis of the verdicts of national courts and ECHR rulings, and the reports on Turkey of international human rights organizations. In addition to proposals for legislation change regarding obstructions faced in the struggle against impunity, solution proposals were brought forward regarding the interpretation and implementation of legislation.