After 20 years, UN Human Rights Council again on duty for Turkey

The U.N. Human Rights Council has started monitoring and reporting on violations of the right to freedom of opinion in Turkey, sending a special rapporteur to the country 20 years after the last such mission was conducted in 1996. 

"The press, digital media, opposition voices and many others are facing unprecedented pressure, from censorship to outright detention. I urge the government to reverse this course and return to protecting and promoting the rights of people in Turkey," U.N. Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye, told the Hürriyet Daily News.

A government has the responsibility to protect its people and national security against terrorism, but that does not give it a "blank check," Kaye added, referring to the Turkish government's harsh measures since the July 15 coup attempt.   

The U.N. body sent its then-rapporteur to Turkey in the 1990s, a decade known in the country for infamous drastic human rights violations amid the war with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The U.N. Human Rights Council asked for permission to visit Turkey and the Turkish government invited Kaye in February 2016.  

Kaye stressed that violations to freedom of expression in 2016 are more "serious than they were in the 1990s because the move away from freedom of expression is even more obvious."

"In some way it's disappointing because you have this period where human rights law became a part of Turkish law," he said.

"So much has changed since the 1990s. Turkey is part of the global human rights system now. There were very important cases in the late 90s, but now Turkey is embedded in the Council of Europe system. All these issues that we are talking about were at different...