TOHAV

TOHAV Monitoring Report 2007

In Turkey, when it comes to human rights, the first word that comes to mind is “torture”. It’s inevitable that torture dwells in the consciousness of a society whose memory is haunted by traumas of third-degree practices of 1950’s, by coup d'etat on 27^th May, 12^th March, 12^th September, and by low intensity warfare of 1990’s.

Thus, torture is a phenomenon that will never lose its effect in our society. The second word that comes to mind, when torture is articulated, is punishment. Punishment is cruelty towards the ones who goes beyond the limits of hegemony, who doesn’t comply with the rules and who is against. Thus torture is a historical concept in the social memory that pertains not only to our society but to the humanity as a whole.

Along with the rise of ‘state’, torture rises too, as a primary tool for its self-defense. For this reason, torture had its place in constitution texts of states, till 19^th century enlightenment, sometimes giving details on the methods and applications. In the legal texts of states that can be defined as ‘river civilizations’ in river basins of Yellow River, Indus and Ganges, Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, torture took place as a tool for punishment and maintenance of state rule. In criminal law of China and Egypt, torture was used as the unique tool to find out and punish the criminal. In Babel, in Hammourabi's law, torture was an execution method for crimes on property. Even though, in legal texts of Ancient Greek, torture was deemed to be unacceptable for the free citizens, it was the primary inquiry method. On the other hand, torture was deemed to be the fate of the slaves. Plato, in his Utopia discussed this in detail. Also in Rome, torture and exposure of the criminals to the lions in an arena were methods that took place in the law texts. In the middle age, torture was legal. S/he was to be tortured if s/he did not confess. And if s/he confessed, s/he was again tortured to be purified from the evils inside her/him...

With the Renaissance and 19^th century illumination, torture was criticized by intellectuals soundly. Voltaire, Beccaria, Montesquieu and others expressed their ideas in their books. Thus, with the French Revolution, torture was prohibited in law texts of countries like Sweden and Germany.

According to the ideological systems of enlightenment intellectuals, which put man in the center, there is an oppositional stance against state on cases of freedom of thought and speech, human rights and torture. The essential duties of the state were deemed to assure the inviolability and security of the individual. It was said that public authority was to respect human honor and life; Monarch was held responsible primarily for this. In those human rights statements, principles that still preserve their currency were articulated. Thus, torture was started to be cited as an absolute prohibition in law texts, in the middle of 19^th century.

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