Council of Europe’s agenda: Hate crimes in Turkey

During the current Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly sessions, 27 country representatives have signed a document to bring visibility to hate murders in Turkey.

 

Parliamentarians from 14 countries in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) gathered on October 2 to bring visibility to the fact that Turkey consistently has one of the highest reported number of hate crime cases in Europe.

 

With the title “The need for measures to counter transphobic and homophobic violence and discrimination in Turkey”, the documet was supported by enough delegates, therefor becoming an official document of the Parliamentary Assembly.

 

27 representatives of the 14 signing countries were affiliated with the European People’s Party, Socialist Group, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, European Democrat Group, Group of the Unified European Left. There were also representatives who do not belong to a political party.

 

Kaos GL’s human rights report for 2012 states that 11 hate murders took place; 6 trans and 5 lesbian, gay and bisexual persons.  The document prepared by the PACE underlined the insufficient measures by authorities: “All too often homophobic and transphobic attitudes within law enforcement agencies mean that the response of the authorities to such acts of discrimination is inadequate. This situation can only be improved by an extensive government led programme of awareness raising among the general public, law reform and the training of police and judiciary.”

 

The document called upon the Turkish government to implement such a programme, “using the Committee of Ministers Recommendation on combating discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity as the framework”.

 

GUNNARSSON Jonas, Sweden, SOC

ACKETOFT Tina, Sweden, ALDE

ANDREOLI Paride, San Marino, SOC

BLANCO Delia, Spain, SOC

BONET PEROT Sílvia Eloïsa, Andorra, SOC

CEDERBRATT Mikael, Sweden, EPP/CD

CHRISTOFFERSEN Lise, Norway, SOC

CONNARTY Michael, United Kingdom, SOC

DÍAZ TEJERA Arcadio, Spain, SOC

GARÐARSON Karl, Iceland, ALDE

GIOVAGNOLI Gerardo, San Marino, SOC

HÄGG Carina, Sweden, SOC

JÁUREGUI Ramón, Spain, SOC

JENSEN Mogens, Denmark, SOC

JENSEN Michael Aastrup, Denmark, ALDE

JÓNASSON Ögmundur, Iceland, UEL

KONRÁÐSDÓTTIR Unnur Brá, Iceland, EDG

LE BORGN’ Pierre-Yves, France, SOC

LUNDGREN Kerstin, Sweden, ALDE

MAURY PASQUIER Liliane, Switzerland, SOC

MYLLER Riitta, Finland, SOC

OHLSSON Carina, Sweden, SOC

POURBAIX-LUNDIN Marietta, de, Sweden, EPP/CD

RAČAN Ivan, Croatia, SOC

TRETTEBERGSTUEN Anette, Norway, SOC

VILLUMSEN Nikolaj, Denmark, UEL

WURM Gisela, Austria, SOC

 

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