Turkey leads resolution in favor of peaceful protest in Geneva

Amid growing global concerns over the deterioration of civil rights and freedoms, the Turkish government has led a resolution favoring people's right to peaceful protest at the U.N. Human Rights Council (URC), prompting a leading human rights organization to call on Ankara to harmonize its national level of implementation with its acts in the international field.

The resolution on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of peaceful protest was adopted late last week by the HRC during their 31st session in Geneva. The resolution was the third adopted by the HRC in an initiative led by a core group of Switzerland, Turkey and Costa Rica. It is the "core group" of states which initiate, draft and table resolutions for adoption, thus Turkey was among those who initiated the resolution.

While speaking with Hürriyet Daily News, a civil society advocate group underlined that the Turkish government had been involved in the core group drafting the resolution back in June 2011, long before the anti-government Gezi Park protests in the summer of 2013.

"We welcome Turkey's leadership at the U.N. to steer through this important resolution on human rights in protest, but this lies in stark contrast to the deterioration in respect for fundamental freedoms at the national level," Thomas Hughes, the executive director of London-based free speech and human rights organization Article 19, told the Daily News on March 30.

"We would welcome Turkey now taking a leading role in implementing the U.N. guidance it commissioned by ensuring that its domestic laws and practices relating to protest are brought into compliance with international human rights law," Hughes added. 

The resolution enjoyed the co-sponsorship of 60 states...