Update on Memory Center’s Work on Fight Against Impunity

June 2014

The Memory Center's Fight Against Impunity Group continues to conduct research in collaboration with academicians, analyze case files regarding disappeared persons and follow up on cases in this area.

To examine previous work of the center regarding impunity and legal processes, you can click here.

The fundamental purpose of these efforts can be summarised as;

• Raising awareness about state violence;
• Revealing 'impunity' policies that protect responsible parties, including the state, in human rights violations, and;
• Exposing the stance of the judiciary.

We have recently carried out the following activities within this framework:

• Analysis of legal data collected during earlier field work is ongoing. "Who are the suspects in enforced disappearance cases, what is the average time since the date of crime, what is the fate of investigation and prosecution in terms of national laws and the ECHR, what are the common choke-points in the legal process, and what are the violations of efficient prosecution responsibilities?" are some of the questions our studies focus on.
• Investigation/prosecution data on 253 forcibly disappeared persons has been examined and uploaded to the database. The results of current analysis on impunity and responsibility of the state can be seen in the table below:

• Strengthening civil society's capacity and making a coordinated effort are extremely important in the fight against impunity. With this perspective, we are trying to bring issues such as 'prevention of statute of limitation', and the problem of 'transferred cases' to the Constitutional Court, in collaboration with İHOP (Human Rights Joint Platform) constituents, TESEV (Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation), and regional bar associations such as Batman Bar Association, Diyarbakır Bar Association, Şırnak Bar Association.
• İstanbul Bar Association’s Human Rights Commission and Batman Bar Association’s Unsolved Murders Research Commission have completed the classification of data, which will be entered into the database upon examination.
• Monitoring of the casesof former Mardin Dargeçit Gendarme Commander and current Ankara Gendarme Commander Musa Çitil, who is on trial for brutally murdering and disappearing thirteen civilians, and Şırnak Border Brigade Commander Mete Sayar, who is on trial in Ankara, are being monitored.
• Monitoring of the case of former Bolu 2nd Commando Brigade Commander Yavuz Ertürk, who is on trial in Ankara for dissappearing eleven civilians.
• Entering of the collected data on prosecution violations into the database in a queryable format (according to EHRC criteria) soon.

The planned set of activities we foresee for the near future in 2015 are the following;

• The opening of a website/knowledge base about enforced disappearances is currently being planned, within the scope of our new EU supported project, . This knowledge base is going to include national and international case law regarding this subject, as well as articles, publications, and previous practices from different countries regarding alternative intervention methods that can be taken as examples. Preliminary work on this matter is continuing.
• Holding a regional consultation meeting with lawyers and Bar Associations is also being planned, which is expected to focus on the content of the knowledge base and our requirements.
• A national meeting/workshop to study and determine problem areas in 'impunity' cases and to understand opportunities in overcoming these, and an international symposium to share experience between countries, are also on the planning agenda.
• University courses will also be organised in order to encourage youth to raise awareness about state crimes and fight against impunity.