JINHA

 AMED – The AKP has quietly introduced a bill that would increase the discretionary powers of prison guards, in a move that lawyers say could spell a repeat of the sexual torture and massacres for which Turkey's prisons have become notorious. Lawyers say the proposed changes would embolden human rights violations.

 Turkey has a long history of the systematic use of torture and massacres against prisoners. Such tactics, which have been in widespread use in Turkey's prison from the 1980 coup to the present day, are noteworthy for their frequently gendered character and their particularly intense application against women and children. The Diyarbakır Prison became notorious for the torture, and particularly sexual torture, used against Kurdish political prisoners. Sakine Cansız (one of the three Kurdish women assassinated in Paris in 2013) became a hero to many for her heroic survival of severe, and pronouncedly gendered, torture and disfigurement there.

 In the massacre of December 19, 2000, Turkish security forces coordinated the simultaneous storming of 20 separate prisons (many of them women and children's prisons) to break a death fast by leftist political prisoners that had been going on for months. In the massive attack, presented by the Turkish government under the macabre misnomer "Operation Return to Life," security forces opened fire on, burned alive and used internationally illegal chemical weapons on prisoners (around 600 of whom were permanently disfigured or disabled in the attack).

 Pozantı Prison in Adana witnessed the most recent scandal over human rights violations in Turkey in 2010, when it became notorious for widespread sexual abuse and torture of children in the prison. The prison, notable for housing many Kurdish children political prisoners, was closed in the wake of the scandal, but reports of sexual abuse being either directly perpetrated by or implicitly permitted by guards continue to come in from other children's prisons in Turkey.

 Now, new legislation in Turkey appears to be silently laying the ground to legalize and facilitate rights violations in Turkey's prisons.

 While the recent Internal Security Law passed in Turkey has drawn heavy criticism for the powers it gives to police, the proposed prison changes have attracted less attention. The AKP-advocated Internal Security Law has empowered police officers to conduct searches and use live ammunition without warrants. The new draft law relating to prison regulations would similarly increase individual discretionary powers for prison guards.

 Lawyers say that if the law passes, the AKP will have succeeded in increasing the discretion and lack of accountability of security officers in all areas of life. Lawyer Meral Danış Beştas noted that among the many urgent problems in Turkey's prisons—overcrowding, sexual violence, the ongoning lack of justice for victims of torture and massacre in prison—a lack of powers for prison guards is certainly not one of them.

 "Anyone in prison, whoever they may be, goes through a serious search process. No one has a weapon inside. These people are defenseless and under the observation of the state," said Meral. "We have not heard reports of any prisoner or convict attacking a prison employee. In the cases of harassment and rape, we know that prisoners are not the ones responsible here."

 The families of the imprisoned in Turkey have waged a long struggle to ensure the protection of the rights of prisoners in the country. Bahar Oktay, a lawyer for the Federation of Families of Prisoners and Convicts (TUHAD-FED), says the proposed legal changes will leave prisoners and their families with further anxiety about the safety of their loved ones.

 There are more than 500 critically ill prisoners detained in Turkey's prisons, according to the Human Rights Assocation (İHD). These prisoners in particular, whom the Turkish government already systematically denies medical treatment, would be under threat from the increased discretionary potential of prison guards in Turkey to use chemical weapons. Chemical weapons can torture a healthy prisoner, but can spell immediate death for a prisoner with existing health problems.

 Bahar noted that the United Nations forbids the use of chemical weapons in enclosed areas and particularly prisons, yet prison guards across Turkey are equipped with pressurized water cannons, pepper spray, tear gas and attack dogs—and the new laws will increase officials' discretion to use them. The law also gives prison guards the right to use firearms at their discretion without authorization and increases situations in which prison guards can use force.

 "It's not hard to guess the kinds of disasters that this will enable," said Bahar.

 The law also permits prison guards to cover their insignia during actions inside prisons, which Bahar explained would embolden personnel in potential violations of prisoners' human rights. The proposed law also allows for the recording of meetings between prisoners and their families, a violation of basic privacy rights.

 "This bill is not a law that can pass in Parliament in any way," said Bahar, who noted that it opens the way for violations of a number of basic international human rights. She says that she and other lawyers are working to raise public awareness about the proposed bill.

 (sg/fk/mg/cm)