Chilling footage showing detained Indigenous children being tear gassed and a child being hooded and strapped to a restraint chair in Australia’s Northern Territory must serve as a wakeup call for the government on the need to urgently change its policies on juvenile detention.

The organization is calling on Australia’s authorities to immediately ratify the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) as a way of ensuring that detention facilities are thoroughly and independently monitored.

“Hooding and the use of restraint chairs are notorious tactics that recall the horrors of Guantanamo Bay – they constitute a shocking violation of both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention against Torture. We are calling for an immediate prohibition on the use of restraint chairs and hooding for law enforcement and in the prison system, as part of a complete overhaul of Australia’s juvenile detention system,” said Champa Patel, Amnesty International’s Senior Research Adviser for South East Asia and the Pacific

“The image of a distressed child being forcibly stripped by three men, and the sound of guards laughing while children choke on teargas, should be ingrained on the minds of Australia’s leaders, who for years have ignored calls for better protection of children’s human rights in detention facilities in Northern Territory and across the country.”

“The image of a distressed child being forcibly stripped by three men […] should be ingrained on the minds of Australia’s leaders, who for years have ignored calls for better protection of children’s human rights in detention facilities in Northern Territory and across the country.”

Champa Patel, Amnesty international

On Monday 26 July ABC’s Four Corners Program screened footage of the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin, Northern Territory which showed prison officials abusing detained teenage boys from 2010 to 2015.

In a series of chilling scenes, the boys were shown being knocked to the floor and verbally abused, or forcibly stripped and then left naked and alone in locked rooms. Some were kept locked in their cells for almost 24 hours a day with no running water, little natural light, and were denied access to school and educational material.

A number of human rights bodies have determined that the practice of hooding, most notably used at Guantanamo Bay and in the Abu Ghraib prison camp, constitutes a form of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

There is no evidence that the use of restraint chairs is more effective as a means of law enforcement than safer alternatives.

There is no evidence that the use of restraint chairs is more effective as a means of law enforcement than safer alternatives.

The film also shows prison officials misusing tear gas by pumping it into a confined isolation unit where five boys were locked in their cells with limited ventilation and no exit, increasing the risk of physical injury, suffocation and even death.

Amnesty International Australia has repeatedly raised concerns about tear gassing and other abuses in Northern Territory youth detention centres, and in the past five years has also responded to similar serious allegations in two other states.

Amnesty International, along with others, has for years been calling on Australia to ensure that youth detention centres are being independently inspected by ratifying the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT). Australia is currently a signatory to OPCAT, but has not yet ratified it. Ratification would mean the establishment of a National Preventative Mechanism (NPM), an independent national body which would have unlimited access to all places of detention.

“Only after it ratifies OPCAT can the Australian Government, and all states and territories in its jurisdiction, be held to account for the mistreatment of people in detention facilities. This alarming new footage proves that Australia cannot delay any longer – children are suffering horrendous abuse,” said Champa Patel.

“This alarming new footage proves that Australia cannot delay any longer – children are suffering horrendous abuse.”

champa patel, amnesty international

The ABC footage has also highlighted, once again, the shameful rate of Indigenous incarceration in Australia. In 2013–2014, Indigenous young people were 26 times more likely to be in detention than non-Indigenous young people. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people make up just over five per cent of the Australian population of 10 to 17-year-olds, but more than half (59 per cent) of those in detention.

In a report released last year, Amnesty International Australia stressed that the situation is particularly bad in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory and highlighted the urgent need for change throughout Australia.

“It is no coincidence that the boys seen in this footage are Indigenous – the UN Convention on Torture acknowledges that discrimination paves the way for torture and ill-treatment. By failing to tackle entrenched racism against Indigenous people and huge inequalities in health, education and housing, the Australian government has allowed this culture of abuse to flourish,” said Champa Patel.

“By failing to tackle entrenched racism against Indigenous people and huge inequalities in health, education and housing, the Australian government has allowed this culture of abuse to flourish.”

champa patel, amnesty international

Background

In 2012 the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) said that Australia’s juvenile justice system required substantial reform before it would meet international standards, noting, for example, that children in Australia are held criminally responsible from the age of 10, two years younger than the CRC’s internationally acceptable minimum.

Today over 100 organisations, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak representative bodies and Amnesty International, have released an Open Statement welcoming Prime Minister Turnbull’s Royal Commission into the horrific abuse of children in the Northern Territory, but calling for it to be conducted independently from the NT Government and for a broader inquiry into the youth justice system as a whole.

The strong leadership demonstrated by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in swiftly and decisively responding to the ABC’s Four Corners episode on Monday night, which revealed a broken youth justice system is welcomed in the Statement.

Change the Record (CTR) Coalition Co-Chair Shane Duffy said, “Prime Minister Turnbull’s commitment to establishing a Royal Commission to expose the horrific incidences of abuse at Don Dale is a welcome first step. It is clear that an initial investigation into Northern Territory detention must be conducted as a matter of priority and urgency”.

“However it is imperative that the Royal Commission is conducted independent of the NT Government, to ensure that those involved with, and responsible for, the cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of young people in the Northern Territory are held to account”.

The Statement also points to the disproportionately high rates of incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people across the country. Nationally, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people are around 24 times more likely to be imprisoned than their non-Indigenous youth.

“The Royal Commission must encompass the entire NT youth justice system, and investigate the underlying factors that have led to the our young people coming in contact with the justice system in the first place” said Mr Duffy.

As a second step, the Open Statement calls for the Royal Commission to conduct a broader inquiry into the youth justice system and extend its Terms of Reference to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young peoples’ interaction with the youth justice system across all State and Territory jurisdictions.

“The issue of over-imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth, is not confined to the Northern Territory. The Royal Commission provides us with opportunity for us to have a broader conversation about how to address some of these systemic issues.”

The Open Statement also calls on the Australian Government to take immediate action, including the urgent ratification of OPCAT and setting of national justice targets.

Prime Minister Turnbull’s announcement of a Royal Commission into the conditions in Northern Territory youth detention is welcome, following last night’s shocking Four Corners program depicting the torture and abuse of incarcerated children. In setting the terms of reference the Prime Minister should consult with Indigenous and youth organisations in the Northern Territory.

However, Mr Turnbull must go further: “While a Royal Commission is extremely important, the Australian Government doesn’t need to wait for a Royal Commission to tell it what it already knows: The Northern Territory Government has failed to protect children under its care. Children in NT youth detention remain at risk and they need access to immediate care and support” said Julian Cleary, Indigenous Rights Campaigner at Amnesty International Australia.

“Children in NT youth detention remain at risk and they need access to immediate care and support.”

Julian Cleary, Amnesty International Australia

To ensure the safety of detained children and prevent this from ever happening again the Federal Government should put in place a national mechanism to monitor all places of detention Australia-wide. This mechanism is already available to the government – it’s called the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT).

The Australian Government must immediately ratify OPCAT, which would ensure independent monitoring of places of detention – including youth detention facilities. Under the auspices of OPCAT, the Federal Government should establish a National Preventative Mechanism to monitor all places of detention in Australia.

“The Australian Government has said it is considering ratifying OPCAT, but the rights of vulnerable children in detention need protection immediately,” said Julian Cleary, Indigenous Rights Campaigner at Amnesty International Australia.

“The Australian Government has said it is considering ratifying OPCAT, but the rights of vulnerable children in detention need protection immediately.”

julian cleary

“As distressing as the Four Corners footage was, none of the allegations were new. All levels of Government have known for years about the treatment of children in juvenile detention in the Northern Territory. What’s more, allegations of rights violations have not only been made in the NT, but in every state and territory in the last five years.”

The Turnbull Government also must also adopt national Justice Targets as part of the Closing The Gap framework. Setting national Justice Targets will set the national agenda and provide a concrete goal for reducing the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the justice system, both in detention and as victims of crime.

“From today, ratifying OPCAT and setting National Justice Targets will demonstrate Mr Turnbull’s commitment to urgently protecting children in detention.”

Restrictions on the delivery of vital humanitarian aid to civilians in Yemen are exacerbating the country’s humanitarian crisis and endangering lives. All parties to the conflict must allow full and unfettered access to organizations providing crucial supplies.

A delegation from the organization visited Huthi-controlled parts of Yemen in May 2016 and spoke to 11 local and international humanitarian aid organizations who described unlawful restrictions on aid by both Huthi and Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces. The organization is urging that the removal of impediments to aid delivery is given top priority at the peace talks currently underway in Kuwait before they conclude this week.

“Unlawful impediments to aid in Yemen are causing dreadful suffering, and depriving people of their basic needs in the midst of an active conflict. It is absolutely imperative that negotiators prioritize this issue and take steps to guarantee aid is getting to those who need it most and that aid workers and their operations are not targeted or harassed,” said Lama Fakih, Senior Crisis Advisor at Amnesty International.

“Unlawful impediments to aid in Yemen are causing dreadful suffering, and depriving people of their basic needs in the midst of an active conflict.”

Lama Fakih, Amnesty International

“All parties to the armed conflict have an obligation to allow and facilitate delivery of impartial humanitarian assistance for civilians in need. Blocking such aid is a violation of international humanitarian law. Unfettered humanitarian assistance must be allowed to all those in Yemen desperately in need of food, water and sanitation and all parties need to let the aid workers do their jobs without interference or obstruction.”

During the post-Ramadan Eid period at the start of this month and leading up to the resumption of peace talks on 15 July, airstrikes and ground hostilities in various parts of the country re-intensified, leading to further displacement and worsening a situation where half of Yemen’s children are chronically malnourished and less than one in 10 of those children live to reach the age of five.

Half of Yemen’s children are chronically malnourished and less than one in 10 of those children live to reach the age of five.

Aid workers who spoke to Amnesty International consistently described ad-hoc and unlawful barriers hampering the delivery of humanitarian assistance in the country. These include the overly burdensome deconfliction procedures for humanitarian organizations put in place by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, which entail informing the coalition of all their movements and providing coordinates of their operations so that they are not targeted.

Other obstacles identified include threats, intimidation, and obstruction of humanitarian workers’ activities, interference by Huthi security branches in aid operations and the forcible closure of humanitarian programmes as well as excessive and arbitrary restrictions on the movement of goods and staff into and around the country and interference which attempts to compromise the independence of aid operations.

Coalition failure to protect humanitarian relief personnel and operations

Humanitarian workers in Yemen face a multitude of threats and risks from the ongoing fighting and explosive remnants of war on a daily basis in order reach some of the population in need. Their struggles are compounded by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition’s lack of responsiveness and cooperation with them, which poses an unnecessary hindrance that is both costly and time consuming and delays the delivery of crucial aid.

“Humanitarian organizations are already struggling to cope with destroyed infrastructure and dangerous working conditions, and it is absurd that the delivery of aid is hinging on the coalition’s ad-hoc rules – people’s lives are on the line,” said Lama Fakih.

“It is absurd that the delivery of aid is hinging on the coalition’s ad-hoc rules – people’s lives are on the line.”

lama fakih, amnesty international

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition demands excessively detailed maps, staff and vehicle information. These onerous requirements consume considerable time and resources. As a result, some NGOs are unable or choose not to provide this information, placing their staff and supplies in grave danger.

“The onus is on the coalition to ensure that they are not targeting civilians or civilian objects, including humanitarian workers and relief supplies. Humanitarian workers should be allowed unfettered access to distribute independent humanitarian assistance to the people caught in the middle ofYemen’s bloody conflict. The coalition and the Huthis should be doing all they can to facilitate relief operations – not make them more difficult,” said Lama Fakih.

Harassment of humanitarian workers by Huthis

Humanitarian organizations also reported being verbally or physically threatened, detained and questioned by a variety of Huthi committees and Huthi-aligned entities including the National Security Bureau and Political Security Office, as well as others. In some cases, staff were detained or intimidated at gunpoint and humanitarian organizations were forced to halt field activities if they did not agree to unreasonable demands such as handing over the names of beneficiaries receiving their aid.

Bureaucratic restrictions

Stifling layers of bureaucracy imposed by the Huthi-controlled ministries also slow down the approval process of aid delivery. For example, humanitarian organizations have been asked by the Ministry of Planning to submit travel plans for a three month period, which can be extremely challenging in the volatile context of an armed conflict where plans can change at short notice.

The de facto Huthi authorities have also imposed a number of restrictions on access for international humanitarian workers, arbitrarily denying them access or delaying issuing visas and imposing excessively onerous internal movement permits for both international and national staff. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in February the Ministry of Interior in Sana’a refused travel permission to three different UN-led missions from Sana’a to Ibb and Ta’iz – 79% of the population in Ta’iz, Yemen’s third largest city, are in need of humanitarian aid.

Interference with independence of aid operations

In some cases Huthi local authorities, including the Ministry of Planning, have stalled and in some cases stopped assessments of humanitarian needs and programme monitoring from being carried out. They have also attempted to influence who humanitarian organizations hire or distribute aid to. This contravenes core humanitarian principles of independence and impartiality as well as internationally accepted best practice. It also impedes effective humanitarian operations, from planning to delivery.

The 2016 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan requests US $1.8 billion, but by end of June, only 25% of funding had been received.

“Yemen is facing a desperate humanitarian crisis and funding for aid organizations is crucial. It is imperative that proper needs assessments are carried out without interference,” said Lama Fakih.

“Yemen is facing a desperate humanitarian crisis and funding for aid organizations is crucial. It is imperative that proper needs assessments are carried out without interference.”

LAMA FAKIH, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Under international humanitarian law, all parties to the conflict must grant humanitarian workers freedom of movement, and protect them from attack, harassment and arbitrary detention. They must also ensure rapid and unimpeded delivery of impartial humanitarian relief for civilians in need.

According to the Saudi Press Agency, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior announced that an execution was carried out in Riyadh today bringing the total number of executions carried out so far in 2016 to 100.

In response to this news, Philip Luther Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme said:

“With its 100th execution this year, Saudi Arabia is speeding along in its dogged use of a cruel and inhuman punishment, mindless of justice and human rights.

“At this rate, the Kingdom’s executioners will soon match or exceed the number of people they put to death last year – which, at 158, was the highest recorded figure since 1995.

“With its 100th execution this year, Saudi Arabia is speeding along in its dogged use of a cruel and inhuman punishment, mindless of justice and human rights.

Philip Luther, Amnesty International

Many of those executed have been convicted after deeply unfair trials, as a result of flaws in the justice system. The Saudi Arabian authorities must immediately establish an official moratorium on executions and abolish the death penalty once and for all.”

For more information about the use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia click here.

Amnesty International has gathered credible evidence that detainees in Turkey are being subjected to beatings and torture, including rape, in official and unofficial detention centres in the country.

The organization is calling for independent monitors to be given immediate access to detainees in all facilities in the wake of the coup attempt, which include police headquarters, sports centres and courthouses. More than 10,000 people have been detained since the failed coup.

Amnesty International has credible reports that Turkish police in Ankara and Istanbul are holding detainees in stress positions for up to 48 hours, denying them food, water and medical treatment, and verbally abusing and threatening them. In the worst cases some have been subjected to severe beatings and torture, including rape.

“Reports of abuse including beatings and rape in detention are extremely alarming, especially given the scale of detentions that we have seen in the past week. The grim details that we have documented are just a snapshot of the abuses that might be happening in places of detention,” said Amnesty International’s Europe director John Dalhuisen.

“The grim details that we have documented are just a snapshot of the abuses that might be happening in places of detention.”

John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International

“It is absolutely imperative that the Turkish authorities halt these abhorrent practices and allow international monitors to visit all these detainees in the places they are being held.”

Detainees are being arbitrarily held, including in informal places of detention. They have been denied access to lawyers and family members and have not been properly informed of the charges against them, undermining their right to a fair trial.

On Saturday the Turkish government issued its first decree under new powers authorised by its declaration of a state of emergency. The decree dramatically increases the amount of time detainees can be held without being charged from four to 30 days. The change risks exposing detainees to further torture and other ill-treatment. The decree also provides for officials to observe or even record meetings between pre-trial detainees and lawyers, and detainees are restricted in who they can choose to represent them, further undermining the right to a fair trial.

Torture and other ill-treatment

Amnesty International spoke to lawyers, doctors and a person on duty in a detention facility about the conditions detainees were being held in.

The organization heard multiple reports of detainees being held in unofficial locations such as sports centres and a stable. Some detainees, including at least three judges, were held in the corridors of courthouses.

All of the interviewees wished to remain anonymous for security reasons. The organization heard extremely alarming accounts of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees, particularly at the Ankara Police Headquarters sports hall, Ankara Başkent sports hall and the riding club stables there.

According to these accounts, police held detainees in stress positions, denied them food, water and medical treatment, verbally abused and threatened them and subjected them to beatings and torture, including rape and sexual assault.

According to these accounts, police held detainees in stress positions, denied them food, water and medical treatment, verbally abused and threatened them and subjected them to beatings and torture, including rape and sexual assault.

Two lawyers in Ankara working on behalf of detainees told Amnesty International that detainees said they witnessed senior military officers in detention being raped with a truncheon or finger by police officers.

A person on duty at the Ankara Police Headquarters sports hall saw a detainee with severe wounds consistent with having been beaten, including a large swelling on his head. The detainee could not stand up or focus his eyes and he eventually lost consciousness. While in some cases detainees were afforded limited medical assistance, police refused to allow this detainee essential medical treatment despite his severe injuries. The interviewee heard one police doctor on duty say: “Let him die. We will say he came to us dead.”

The same interviewee said 650-800 male soldiers were being held in the Ankara police headquarters sports hall. At least 300 of the detainees showed signs of having been beaten. Some detainees had visible bruises, cuts, or broken bones. Around 40 were so badly injured they could not walk. Two were unable to stand. One woman who was also detained in a separate facility there had bruising on her face and torso.

The interviewee also heard police officers make statements indicating that they were responsible for the beatings, and that detainees were being beaten so that “they would talk”.

In general, it appears that the worst treatment in detention was reserved for higher-ranking military officers.

Many of the detainees in the sports hall and other facilities were handcuffed behind their backs with plastic zip-ties and forced to kneel for hours. Interviewees reported that zip-ties were often fastened too tight and left wounds on the arms of detainees. In some cases detainees were also blindfolded throughout their detention.

Lawyers described how people were brought before prosecutors for interrogation with their shirts covered in blood.

Lawyers described how people were brought before prosecutors for interrogation with their shirts covered in blood.

Interviewees also said that based on what detainees told them police deprived them of food for up to three days and water for up to two days.

One lawyer working at the Caglayan Courthouse in Istanbul said that some of the detainees she saw there were in extreme emotional distress, with one detainee attempting to throw himself out of a sixth story window and another repeatedly slamming his head against the wall.

“Despite chilling images and videos of torture that have been widely broadcast across the country, the government has remained conspicuously silent on the abuse. Failing to condemn ill-treatment or torture in these circumstances is tantamount to condoning it,” said John Dalhuisen.

Arbitrary detention and absence of due process

Amnesty International interviewed more than 10 lawyers in both Ankara and Istanbul who gave information about the conditions of their clients’ confinement. The lawyers represented up to 18 detainees each. The vast majority of clients were low ranking military personnel, including many conscripts. Some were judges, prosecutors, police, and other civil servants. Detainees were primarily men and were as young as 20.

The accounts of lawyers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, were strikingly similar.

All the lawyers said that in the majority of the cases detainees were held pre-charge for four or more days by the police. With very few exceptions, their clients were being held incommunicado throughout this period and had not been able to inform their families of where they were or what was happening to them.

They were also not able to phone a lawyer and in most cases did not see their lawyers until shortly before being brought to court or being interrogated by prosecutors. One lawyer told Amnesty International that when she finally saw her clients, “[They] gave me the contact information [for their families] so I could call them. The families knew nothing. They were happy to hear their sons were alive.”

“[They] gave me the contact information [for their families] so I could call them. The families knew nothing. They were happy to hear their sons were alive.”

a lawyer in turkey

Amnesty International spoke with a relative of a high-ranking military official who was detained in Ankara. He said that family members were able to speak with the detained relative on his mobile phone on Saturday 16 July before it was confiscated by the police, but that the family has had no information about his fate or whereabouts since then. Family members made several trips to detention centres in Ankara but were consistently told the detainee was not there. The detainee has also had no access to a lawyer. Such treatment amounts to enforced disappearance which in itself is a crime under international law. This practice places detainees outside the protection of the law and cuts them off from the outside world, putting them at very high risk of torture or even extrajudicial execution.

The lawyers told Amnesty International that in most cases neither they nor their clients were informed of the specific charges against them, either in a charge sheet or in court, making it difficult to prepare a defence. Soldiers who had been detained were brought to court in groups as large as 20 and 25 people. One lawyer described trying to defend his client in the current environment as “trying to find something with the lights off”.

Only one of the detainees represented by lawyers who spoke to Amnesty International was able to choose her own lawyer. According to the other interviewees, private lawyers were not allowed to represent detainees, who were all assigned bar association legal aid lawyers. The detainees’ access to their lawyers was also limited. Lawyers told Amnesty International that after the hearings they were not allowed to speak to their clients who were remanded in pre-trial detention.

“These are grave violations of the right to a fair trial which is enshrined in both Turkey’s national law and international law,” said John Dalhuisen.

“These are grave violations of the right to a fair trial which is enshrined in both Turkey’s national law and international law.”

John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International

“Turkey is understandably concerned with public security at the moment, but no circumstances can ever justify torture and other ill-treatment or arbitrary detention. The climate in Turkey right now is one of fear and shock. The government must steer the country on the path to respect for rights and law, not engage in retribution.”

Information provided to Amnesty International by lawyers reflected that many detainees were being held arbitrarily. In the vast majority of cases, they said that no evidence establishing reasonable suspicion of criminal behaviour was presented against their clients during the charge hearings; and the hearing did not establish that there were permissible reasons for detention pending trial.

Instead, lawyers explained that judges ordered detained soldiers to be placed in pre-trial detention if they left their barracks the evening of the coup, regardless of the reason. In one case, a detainee who appeared before the court was not asked a single question by the judge at her hearing.

Some of the questioning by judges was entirely irrelevant to the events of the coup attempt, and appeared intended to establish any link to Fethullah Gülen or institutions sympathetic to him. Authorities accuse Gülen of masterminding the coup attempt, which he has denied.

Lawyers explained that detainees were remanded in pre-trial detention even without a finding that a detainee was a flight risk or that there was a risk a detainee would tamper with evidence, as is legally required.

“Detaining people in connection with a criminal charge without demonstrating that you have evidence of criminal wrongdoing is by definition arbitrary and unlawful,” said John Dalhuisen.

“Detaining people in connection with a criminal charge without demonstrating that you have evidence of criminal wrongdoing is by definition arbitrary and unlawful.”

John Dalhuisen, amnesty international

“These highly irregular, and seemingly systematic practices, must be investigated.”

Recommendations

Amnesty International urges the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) to conduct an emergency visit to Turkey to monitor conditions of detention. As a member of the Council of Europe, the Turkish government has an obligation to cooperate with the CPT. The CPT is the only independent body authorized to conduct ad hoc visits to all places of detention in Turkey at the time of their choosing.

The National Human Rights Institution of Turkey, which had access to detention facilities in the country to monitor conditions of detention, was abolished in April 2016 leaving no institution in the country with this mandate. In the current environment, in which thousands of detainees are being held incommunicado, without access to lawyers or relatives, for lengthy pre-charge periods, in irregular detention centres and amid allegations of torture and other ill-treatment, it is vital that monitors are allowed access.

“Amnesty International urges the Turkish authorities to adhere to their obligations under international human rights law and not to abuse the state of emergency by trampling on the rights of detainees,” said John Dalhuisen.

“Amnesty International urges the Turkish authorities to adhere to their obligations under international human rights law and not to abuse the state of emergency by trampling on the rights of detainees.”

John Dalhuisen, amnesty international

“The prohibition of torture is absolute and can never be compromised or suspended.”

Amnesty International urges the Turkish authorities to condemn torture and other ill-treatment in places of detention, and take concrete steps to combat it and hold perpetrators accountable.

Authorities should ensure bar associations and family members are notified of detentions without delay and that lawyers have unimpeded access to their clients at all stages of detention.