Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards

Human rights organizations held a press meeting at 11:00 on June 14 at the general headquarters of the Human Rights Association (IHD) in relation to the Human Rights Commission’s decision to pass the new draft law on the Turkish Human Rights institution (TIHK) to Parliament without any changes.

The organizations who participated in the meeting are nonplussed in face of the fact that the commission sent the draft law, whose preparation had been underway since 2004, to Parliament without any alterations, Metin Bakkalcı said while reading the press release on behalf of the participants.

The draft law is left null and void in its current form, he said and made number of tough comments (see article in full for details) to conclude that National Human rights Institutions ought to be autonomous from state institutions and political power in accordance with the spirit and essence of the Paris principles.