Turkey Human Rights Promotion Act of 2021
This bill directs the Department of State to provide assistance to civil society organizations in Turkey that (1) work to secure the release of prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in Turkey, or (2) provide support and post-incarceration assistance for such prisoners.
[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4546 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 4546
To assist those subject to politically motivated charges in Turkey, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 20, 2021
Mr. Jeffries (for himself and Ms. Cheney) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in
addition to the Committee on Financial Services, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To assist those subject to politically motivated charges in Turkey, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Turkey Human
Rights Promotion Act of 2021''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act is as
follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings.
Sec. 3. Definitions.
Sec. 4. Statement of policy.
Sec. 5. Sense of Congress on press freedom.
Sec. 6. Sense of Congress on internet freedom.
Sec. 7. Sense of Congress on protecting lawyers and promoting fair
trials.
Sec. 8. Sense of Congress on accountability for human rights
violations.
Sec. 9. Political prisoners assistance.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The United States values its longstanding alliance with
the Republic of Turkey and its friendship with the people of
Turkey, and seeks to promote their democratic aspirations.
(2) Actions taken by the Government of Turkey in the
aftermath of the attempted coup of July 2016 have significantly
expanded the government's crackdown on freedoms of expression,
peaceful assembly, and association. Freedom House assessed
Turkey to be ``not free'' in its Freedom in the World 2021
report.
(3) Since July 2016, Turkish authorities have detained tens
of thousands of people they accused of aiding the coup attempt
or supporting terrorism, sweeping up journalists, opposition
politicians, dissidents, and others. The end of the state of
emergency in 2018 has not led to an improvement in fundamental
freedoms in Turkey as the Government of Turkey has codified
some of the provisions from the state of emergency into law.
(4) The Government of Turkey has used the attempted coup as
justification for a broader crackdown.
(5) The 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices:
Turkey states, ``Under broad antiterror legislation passed in
2018 the government continued to restrict fundamental freedoms
and compromised the rule of law. Since the 2016 coup attempt,
authorities have dismissed or suspended more than 60,000 police
and military personnel and approximately 125,000 civil
servants, dismissed one-third of the judiciary, arrested or
imprisoned more than 90,000 citizens, and closed more than
1,500 nongovernmental organizations on terrorism-related
grounds, primarily for alleged ties to the movement of cleric
Fethullah Gulen, whom the government accused of masterminding
the coup attempt and designated as the leader of the `Fethullah
Terrorist Organization.'''.
(6) A 2020 Reuters investigative press report revealed that
the Government of Turkey terminated 4,000 judges and
prosecutors since 2016. A 2020 Human Rights Watch report
highlighted the continued arbitrary detention of lawyers, which
runs contrary to Turkey's obligations under the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, done at New York
December 19, 1966, the Convention for the Protection of Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, done at Rome November 4, 1950
(commonly known as the ``European Convention on Human
Rights''), and other human rights obligations.
(7) Turkey is the world's second worst jailer of
journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
(8) President Recep Tayyip Erdogan began a crackdown on
journalism before the 2016 coup attempt, which he then
intensified. The Committee to Protect Journalists estimated
that Turkey was holding at least 37 journalists in jail at the
end of 2020. According to a September 18, 2019, joint statement
by civil society organizations, at least 180 media outlets have
been forcibly closed since the coup attempt of which Kurdish-
language and Kurdish-focused media outlets are especially
vulnerable.
(9) The Government of Turkey has also targeted writers and
academics. Of roughly 2,000 academics who signed a January 2016
petition calling for a restart to peace negotiations between
the government and the armed Kurdistan Workers' Party, more
than 700 scholars were criminally charged with making
propaganda for a terrorist organization.
(10) The Government of Turkey continues its unjust, 3-year
detention of civil society leader Osman Kavala. In 2017,
Turkish authorities charged Kavala and 15 others with
``attempting to overthrow the government or to prevent it from
performing its duties'' based on ill-founded accusations
regarding the group's role in 2013 protests. In December 2019,
the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Kavala's
detention took place in the absence of sufficient evidence that
he had committed an offence, in violation of his right to
liberty and security under the European Convention on Human
Rights. Turkey responded by acquitting Kavala, but immediately
rearresting him under new charges relating to the 2016 coup
attempt and espionage and has continued to ignore the binding
ECHR ruling.
(11) In 2017, Turkish police arrested Amnesty International
Turkey's board chair, Taner Kilic, and its director, Idil Eser,
charging them as members of a terrorist organization. The
charges against Kilic were based on the mere allegation, later
found to be false, that he had downloaded a messaging
application. Yet in July 2020, a Turkish court sentenced Kilic
to over 6 years in prison and Eser was sentenced to more than 2
years in prison.
(12) The Government of Turkey continues its unjust
detention of Selhattin Demirtas, a Kurdish politician detained
with other members of the People's Democratic Party on November
4, 2016. Demirtas was a member of parliament at the time of his
arrest for allegedly ``carrying out terrorist propaganda'' by
speaking in support of peace negotiations with the Kurdistan
Workers' Party. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in
November 2018 that his detention ``had pursued the predominant
ulterior purpose of stifling pluralism and limiting freedom of
political debate, which was at the very core of the concept of
a democratic society''. In December 2020, the ECHR ruled that
Turkey must ``immediately release'' Demirtas from prison, which
Turkey continues to ignore.
(13) The Government of Turkey has targeted lawyers, with
particular focus on criminal defense lawyers, prosecuting them
for discharging their professional duties and associating them,
without evidence, with the alleged crimes of their clients.
Fair trial rights and protections for lawyers have been
restricted just as they are most critically needed given mass
detentions and the wider crackdown on dissent. Police have also
intimidated lawyers and obstructed their work
(14) The Government of Turkey heavily restricts and censors
the internet. In 2019, the government blocked more than 408,000
websites, 40,000 tweets, 10,000 YouTube videos, and 6,200
Facebook shares, and blocked Wikipedia between 2017 and 2020.
In early 2021, the government enacted a new social media law,
which threatens social media companies that do not obey
requests to remove content. Twitter, and its live video-
streaming services, are currently facing pressure in the form
of advertising bans by the Government of Turkey as a result of
their unwillingness to appoint local representatives to handle
government removal requests.
(15) Turkey ranks among the countries with the highest
number of content removal requests sent to Twitter and
Facebook, according to the companies' transparency reports.
(16) The Government of Turkey has demonstrated a disregard
for fundamental freedoms beyond Turkey's borders, including in
the United States. In 2016, members of President Erdogan's
security detail engaged in violence against journalists
reporting on an event at the Brookings Institution. During
President Erdogan's May 2017 visit to Washington, DC,
individuals from the Turkish Embassy grounds pushed past
District of Columbia police officers to brutally attack
individuals demonstrating peacefully in opposition to policies
of the Government of Turkey.
(17) The Government of Turkey has abused international
institutions to target critics, ``triggering a flood of
Interpol `red notice' requests to detain critics abroad'',
according to Freedom House.
(18) Since 2014, the Government of Turkey has pursued
opponents and critics in more than 30 countries, securing the
renditions of at least 58 people without due process in what
Freedom House has characterized as a ``campaign of
transnational repression'', unrivaled by any other country. In
a March 3, 2021 report, the Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights stated that the increase in cases in arbitrary
detention ``may constitute crimes against humanity''.
(19) The Government of Turkey threatens to escalate its
targeting of critics internationally, consistent with an overly
broad domestic counterterrorism campaign. On October 30, 2019,
President Erdogan stated, ``Some countries eliminate terrorists
whom they consider as a threat to their national security,
wherever they are. Therefore, this means those countries accept
Turkey has the same right. This includes the terrorists they
shake hands with and praise.'' He added that he hoped to
deliver ``good news'' on the matter soon.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Political prisoner.--The term ``political prisoner''
means a person who has been deprived of his or her personal
liberty if--
(A) the detention has been imposed in violation of
one of the fundamental guarantees set out in the
European Convention on Human Rights, particularly--
(i) freedom of thought, conscience, and
religion;
(ii) freedom of expression and information;
and
(iii) freedom of assembly and association;
(B) the detention has been imposed for purely
political reasons without connection to any offense;
(C) for political motives, the length of the
detention or its conditions are clearly out of
proportion to the offense of which the person has been
found guilty or is suspected;
(D) for political motives, he or she is detained in
a discriminatory manner as compared to other persons;
or
(E) the detention is the result of proceedings
which were clearly unfair and appear to be connected
with political motives of the authorities.
(2) Prisoner of conscience.--The term ``prisoner of
conscience'' means any person who--
(A) is imprisoned or otherwise physically
restricted solely for the peaceful exercise of his or
her human rights; and
(B) has not used violence or advocated violence or
hatred.
SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It is the policy of the United States--
(1) to support democracy, peace, and prosperity in Turkey;
(2) to oppose the abuse of counterterrorism authorities,
including targeting journalists, political opponents,
dissidents, minorities (including Kurds), and others engaged in
exercising their right to freedoms of expression, peaceful
assembly, or association;
(3) to consider those unfairly detained or imprisoned under
counterterrorism authorities on politically motivated grounds
to be prisoners of conscience or political prisoners, as
appropriate, unless there is probative evidence of specific
criminal misconduct presented in proceedings that comply with
international fair trial standards;
(4) to use all diplomatic tools to advocate that all
prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in Turkey
should be released;
(5) to support and pressure the Government of Turkey in the
repeal or amendment of--
(A) all anti-terrorism laws and regulations that
allow the government to unjustly target journalists,
political opponents, dissidents, and minorities;
(B) all laws and regulations that violate the right
to freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, or
association in a manner not permitted by international
legal standards, including laws and regulations that
seek to punish those who insult political figures or
denigrate the Turkish nation or state institutions; and
(C) all laws and regulations that violate the right
to a fair trial; and
(6) to oppose the export to Turkey by any country of
surveillance technologies, including software, that could be
used to monitor the activities of journalists, political
opponents, dissidents, or minorities.
SEC. 5. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON PRESS FREEDOM.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the Government of Turkey must take steps to
significantly improve the dire climate for journalists and
those supporting the journalism profession, including--
(A) ending the enforcement of draconian laws and
regulations that restrict freedom of expression; and
(B) releasing all journalists and media workers who
have been imprisoned for fulfilling their professional
responsibilities;
(2) the Department of State should provide assistance and
warnings of impending politically motivated detention or harm
to journalists and media workers in danger in Turkey,
regardless of citizenship status, including journalists working
for Kurdish media organizations;
(3) United States Government officials should prioritize
demands to release unfairly detained journalists and media
workers in their communications with Turkish officials; and
(4) press freedom and the freedom of expression are
fundamental human rights and should be upheld and protected in
Turkey and everywhere.
SEC. 6. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON INTERNET FREEDOM.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the Government of Turkey must cease its ongoing
crackdown on free expression on the internet, including by
repealing or amending laws that allow the government to block a
website or remove content from the website if there is
sufficient suspicion that the site is insulting political
figures;
(2) the Department of State should support and pressure the
Government of Turkey in halting its frequent requests that
social media companies block accounts and content of
journalists and media outlets, ending its blocking of
Wikipedia, and ensuring that the Radio and Television Supreme
Council does not arbitrarily restrict online streaming services
through a costly and opaque licensing regime; and
(3) escalating controls regulating internet use are an
attempt by the Government of Turkey to silence one of the last
platforms for independent journalism in the country.
SEC. 7. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON PROTECTING LAWYERS AND PROMOTING FAIR
TRIALS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the Government of Turkey must--
(A) halt its indiscriminate detention and
prosecution of lawyers, judges, prosecutors, and court
officials, and its targeting of lawyers' associations;
(B) repeal laws restricting the right of lawyers to
discharge their professional duties, the rights of
suspects to legal counsel, and the right of lawyer-
client privileged communication;
(C) ensure that lawyers can visit detainees in
police custody, and remind police and prosecutors of
the protected role of lawyers under Article 14 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
Articles 5 and 6 of the European Convention on Human
Rights, and the United Nations Basic Principles on the
Role of Lawyers; and
(D) end the practice of prosecuting lawyers based
on whom they have represented as clients;
(2) the Department of State should pressure the Government
of Turkey--
(A) to abolish extended pretrial detention,
consistent with Turkey's Judicial Reform Strategy;
(B) to reverse the April 2017 amendment to Article
159 of the Constitution, which allows for political
control over the nomination procedures to the Council
of Judges and Prosecutors; and
(C) to ensure the independence of judges and of the
judiciary system, with particular focus on the Ministry
of Justice; and
(3) the independence of any country's judicial system
suffers when lawyers--
(A) are subject to intimidation and harassment in
their work; and
(B) are identified with the causes of their
clients.
SEC. 8. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON ACCOUNTABILITY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
VIOLATIONS.
It is the sense of Congress that if the Government of Turkey does
not promptly take effective steps to address the human rights
violations described in this Act--
(1) the President of the United States should impose
sanctions pursuant to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights
Accountability Act (subtitle F of title XII of Public Law 114-
328; 22 U.S.C. 2656 note) with respect to officials of the
Government of Turkey found responsible for--
(A) the detention of prisoners of conscience and
political prisoners;
(B) the politically motivated detention of
journalists;
(C) restricting of freedom of free expression
through social media; and
(D) other gross violations of internationally
recognized human rights;
(2) the President should confirm that United States
security assistance provided to the Government of Turkey is
fully consistent with the conditions mandated in section 36 of
the Arms Export Control Act ((22 U.S.C. 2776)) and the human
rights provisions contained in section 620M of the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961, (22 U.S.C. 2378d); and
(3) the Secretary of the Treasury should instruct the
United States executive director of each international
financial institution to oppose any loan, grant, policy, or
strategy determined to be directly enabling the Government of
Turkey to violate the human rights of its citizens.
SEC. 9. POLITICAL PRISONERS ASSISTANCE.
The Secretary of State shall provide assistance to civil society
organizations in Turkey that work to secure the release of prisoners of
conscience and political prisoners in Turkey, and to current and former
prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in Turkey, including--
(1) support for the documentation of human rights
violations with respect to prisoners of conscience and
politically motivated prisoners;
(2) support for advocacy in Turkey to raise awareness of
issues relating to prisoners of conscience and political
prisoners;
(3) support for efforts to repeal or amend laws or
regulations that are used to imprison individuals as prisoners
of conscience or political prisoners;
(4) support, including travel costs, and legal fees, for
families of prisoners of conscience and political prisoners;
(5) support for health, including mental health, and post-
incarceration assistance in gaining access to education and
employment opportunities or other forms of reparation to enable
former prisoners of conscience and political prisoners to
resume a normal life; and
(6) the delegation of specific United States mission staff
who will observe trials in politically motivated cases,
including in Southeast Turkey.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
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