Central Anatolia Region Prisons Rights Violations Monitoring Coordination announced the report on rights violations in Kırşehir Type S Closed Prison and Kırşehir High Security Closed Prison. Human Rights Association (IHD) Ankara Branch, Association of Lawyers for Freedom (OHD) Ankara Branch, Association of Contemporary Lawyers Association (CHD) Ankara Branch, Federation of Legal Solidarity Associations of Prisoners' Families (TUHAD-FED) and Ankara Medical Chamber Human Rights Commission members attended the meeting.

 

CHD member lawyer Nergiz Görnaz stated that they held meetings with prisoners and the prison administration in order to determine the rights violations in Kırşehir Type S Closed Prison and Kırşehir High Security Closed Prison, to inform the relevant institutions and authorities and to end the rights violations. Nergiz Görnaz said, "As a result of the meetings with the delegation consisting of TUHAD-FED, IHD Ankara Branch, CHD Ankara Branch, OHD Ankara Branch, ATO Human Rights Commission and DEM Party MP, a report was prepared in line with the rights violations identified and presented to the press and the public."

 

RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

 

Nergiz Görnaz listed the violations of rights as follows:

 

"*The rotating hunger strike started on 13 January 2025 in Kırşehir Type S Closed Prison with the demand for a solution to the problems continues as 1 prisoner for 7 days, the water is dirty, oily and rusty, not suitable for drinking and use, prisoners are constantly subjected to arbitrary investigations, 

 

*Prisoners' family visit times are divided by the number of people who come to the visit, this situation prevents the right to visit, the items brought to the prisoners by the families are arbitrarily denied by the administration, and while prisoners sentenced from judicial and other files benefit from the right to ventilation for 2 hours, political prisoners benefit from 45 minutes or 1 hour,

 

*Prisoners were forced to be mouth searched during hospital transfers, prisoners could not get treatment because of this reason, hospital transfers were given to very distant dates, appointments could not be made most of the time, ill prisoners had difficulties in going to the infirmary and getting medication, medication was delayed for months, medication that was deemed necessary by the specialist doctor was not prescribed by the prison doctor, 

 

*Cases of suicide occurred in the prison, the institutional physician's approach to prisoners was ideological and discriminatory, the conditional release and probation rights of prisoners were prevented by abstract and subjective decisions of the Administration and Observation Board, prisoners are held in isolation in solitary cells, prisoners are prevented from greeting each other in areas where they met and prisoners' right to education is prevented,

 

*Books in Kurdish are not given to prisoners and kept waiting for 7-8 months under the name of examination. It was determined that the books from Aram publishing house, regardless of whether they were in Turkish or Kurdish, are not given to prisoners on the grounds that they would "strengthen their ideology" and prisoners were exiled to prisons far from their families and their requests for transfer to prisons close to their families were not accepted."

 

Nergiz Görnaz stated that although the United Nations (UN) International Covenant on Political Rights states that "persons deprived of their liberty have the right to humane treatment and to be treated with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person", this right is not implemented. "Prisoners stated that they were not treated with human dignity in Kırşehir S Type Closed Prison and Kırşehir High Security Closed Prison, that they could not access to clean water and food, that the treatment of those who were ill was interrupted, that their right to communication and information was prevented, that their release was prevented, that they were discriminated against and that they were subjected to many other violations of rights," she added. 

 

'RIGHTS VIOLATIONS MUST END IMMEDIATELY'

 

Nergiz Görnaz emphasised that all violations of rights must end immediately and said, "All violations of rights stated in the statements and applications of prisoners in both prisons must end, practices incompatible with human dignity must be abandoned, and all obstacles to the sending of prisoners' petitions and letters must be removed, We demand that the violation of prisoners' right to probation and conditional release be prevented by creating abstract justifications with the decisions of the administration and observation board, that prisoners' private lives be respected, that mouth searches and handcuffed examinations be stopped, that their right to access to health be ensured and that a life worthy of human dignity be established."