Urgent Action Letter to the UN Special Rapporteurs on Turkey's Continuing Failure to Investigate the Killing of Mr. Tahir Elçi
/The Turkey Litigation Support Project (TLSP), along with 29 other lawyers’ and human rights organizations, has sent a letter (available here) to the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteurs regarding the killing of human rights lawyer and then-chair of the Diyarbakır Bar Association, Tahir Elçi on November 28, 2015, and the continuing lack of an effective investigation into his death.
Ahead of the next hearing in on June 12, 2024, expected to be the last, in the criminal trial of those accused of killing lawyer Tahir Elçi, the oganisations urge the Special Rapporteurs once again to request the Turkish authorities to ensure a fair trial by an impartial and independent tribunal, respecting the procedural rights of Tahir Elçi’s family, as well as to ensure that all those responsible for Tahir Elçi’s death are held accountable and serve adequate sentences.
The letter is addressed to the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers; Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions; Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism; and Special Rapporteur on minority issues. The mandate holders are invited to call on the Turkish authorities to ensure:
i. The court hearing the case complies with its obligation, under the right to life, to ensure that all those responsible are brought to justice and serve appropriate sentences for the killing of Mr. Elçi, and considering, inter alia, the legal responsibility of superior officials for violations by their subordinates;
ii. To this end, in light of the severe shortcomings in the investigation as well as serious allegations of torture and ill-treatment by prosecutors and security forces involved in the case, the court take into account the requests by Tahir Elçi’s family concerning important evidence and witnesses in the case capable of elucidating the killing;
iii. Judicial authorities take all necessary steps to redress the improper bias and serious procedural breaches identified in this letter, which have undermined the victims’ rights in the case, including by giving the Elçi family’s lawyers reasonable opportunities to be heard and to make requests and refraining from an attitude appearing hostile to the Elçi family or its lawyers;
iv. In light of Tahir Elçi’s professional activities, the court explores whether there was a possible political motive for his murder, whether the relevant authorities have taken adequate measures to safeguard Mr. Elçi and whether certain State officials could have been involved;
v. The very serious complaints alleging prosecutors’ involvement in the torture and ill-treatment of witnesses in the case is examined by an independent and impartial judicial body and in case of a credible claim, a criminal proceeding to be instigated against them, the Council of Judges and Prosecutors to start a disciplinary proceeding against those involved and the related evidence is excluded from the file before the Diyarbakır 10th Assize Court;
vi. Mr. Elçi’s family is provided with appropriate redress for the violations they and their loved one have suffered in accordance with the international obligations of Turkey, including under the ECHR, the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers and the Minnesota Protocol.
The letter was endorsed by the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project, American Association of Jurists (Asociación Americana de Juristas, AAJ), Association of Democratic Lawyers (Vereinigung Demokratischer Juristinnen und Juristen, VDJ, Germany), Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC), Bruxelles Bar Association (Ordre des avocats du Barreau de Bruxelles), Bruxelles Bar Association - Human Rights Institute (Institut des droits de l’homme du barreau de Bruxelles), Defence Without Borders - Lawyers in Solidarity (Défense sans frontière avocats solidaires, DSF-AS, France), Democratic Lawyers (Giuristi Democratici, Italy), Democratic Lawyers Association of Bangladesh (DLAB), European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH), European Democratic Lawyers (AED), German Bar Association (Deutscher Anwaltverein, DAV), Indian Association of Lawyers, International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), International Association of People's Lawyers, International Association of People's Lawyers-Australian Branch, International Observatory for Lawyers in Danger (OIAD), Lawyers for Lawyers, Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers, Nantes Bar Association - France, National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL, the Philippines), Observatory Endangered Lawyers - Italian Union of Criminal Chambers (Osservatorio Avvocati Minacciati, UCPI), Rennes Bar Association (Ordre des Avocats du Barreau de Rennes, France), Rotterdam Bar Association - the Netherlands, Seine-Saint Denis Bar Association - France, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), the European Bars Federation (FBE), the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), the Law Society of England and Wales (LSEW), and the Republican Lawyers Association (Republikanische Anwältinnen- und Anwälteverein, RAV, Germany).
Joined by Human Rights in Practice, Legal Centre Lesvos, the Lyon Bar Association, the Observatory for Human Rights Defenders, and the Turin Bar Association, the organizations also released a joint public statement (see here) calling for for justice for Tahir Elçi.
