{"id":27903,"date":"2015-12-10T20:19:42","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T20:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/?p=27903"},"modified":"2015-12-13T18:28:38","modified_gmt":"2015-12-13T18:28:38","slug":"when-there-is-no-peace-all-other-rights-are-diminished-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/when-there-is-no-peace-all-other-rights-are-diminished-3\/","title":{"rendered":"When there is no peace, all other rights are diminished"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the world observes The Human Rights Day, Amnesty International has warned that Europe is facing the worst assaults on human rights since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The reason for this heightened concern stems mainly from anti-terror measures, increased surveillance and the reduction of access to justice.<\/p>\n<p>There is no doubt that the security challenges faced by many countries today, including the ones with well-established democratic institutions, are profound. Combatting new and growing threats are increasingly leading to fundamental rights being trampled upon. Nowhere more so than in countries right in the centre of domestic and international turmoil, where basic freedoms as well as the independence of the judiciary had already been curtailed.<\/p>\n<p>Turkey is one such country.<\/p>\n<p>On the 67<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Foreign Minister Mevlut\u00a0 Cavusoglu <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mfa.gov.tr\/sayin-bakanimizin-10-aralik-insan-haklari-gunu-2015.tr.mfa\">stated<\/a> that protection and respect for human rights and making advances in this field were main targets of Turkey\u2019s state policy.<\/p>\n<p>On the same day, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hurriyetdailynews.com\/turkey-to-raise-minimum-wage-by-30-percent-turkish-pm------.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=92359&amp;NewsCatID=344\">announced<\/a> \u00a0the \u201c64th Government Action Plan\u201d, promising a series of reforms ranging from ending discrimination to Alevi and Roma communities to improving women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n<p>Turkey is seriously lagging behind in ensuring equality of the rights of its ethnic and religious groups. Mr Davutoglu\u2019s long speech outlined several changes towards improving the conditions and opportunities for women, youth, elderly and underprivileged and promised changes to legislation. Yet, none of this has yet amounted to a concrete reform agenda.<\/p>\n<p>With almost 500 deaths in less than six months, it is the fundamental right to life, liberty and security of person that needs to be protected.<\/p>\n<p>At a series of rallies and demonstrations in several cities across Turkey on the 10<sup>th<\/sup> December, human rights defenders called for protection for the right to life above all else.<\/p>\n<p>Holding pictures of Tahir Elci, the head of Diyarbakir Bar Association who was killed in Diyarbakir on November the 28<sup>th<\/sup>, protestors said that their most urgent demand was \u201cpeace\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen there is no peace, there is no right to life. When there is no right to life, all other human rights are violated.\u201d they <a href=\"http:\/\/bianet.org\/bianet\/insan-haklari\/170007-ihd-ve-tihv-baris-bir-insan-hakkidir?utm_content=bufferae296&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer\">said.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The deprivation of the right to life, liberty and security affect all other rights. If the government is serious about guaranteeing human rights, not only in principle, but also in practice, it should stop paying lip service and take meaningful steps to address the causes of the most violent period in its recent history.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the world observes The Human Rights Day, Amnesty International has warned that Europe is facing the worst assaults on human rights since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The reason for this heightened concern stems mainly from anti-terror measures, increased surveillance and the reduction of access to justice. There is no doubt that the [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27903"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27905,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27903\/revisions\/27905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}