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Analysis: Turkish penal reform woes

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  • Analysis: Turkish penal reform woes

    Analysis: Turkish penal reform woes
    By Jonny Dymond


    BBC correspondent in Istanbul
    01 April 05



    Turkey has again postponed the introduction of a revamped penal code -
    just hours before it was due to come into force. The two-month delay
    is all strangely redolent of the first parliamentary passage of the
    code.

    Last September and October all seemed set fair for the passing of a
    new penal code to top off the extraordinary process of legislative
    reform that Turkey has put itself through over the past four years.

    The code was to be passed just before the European Commission issued
    its final report on Turkey's fitness for entry into the EU - and the
    new code was crucially important because the old one was so badly
    riddled with sexual discrimination.

    But then the new code hit a huge snag. Within it was a clause
    proposing the criminalisation of adultery - and a row broke out.

    Opposition

    The government's critics accused it of backwardness and Islamism.

    The EU made clear its displeasure.


    And then, just as the measure was about to go to parliament, the
    entire code was pulled. Surgery took place.

    The revised code made no mention of criminalising adultery. Instead it
    looked - and looks - like a thoroughly modernising measure.

    Most dramatic are the changes made to the law as far as violence
    against women are concerned.

    Rape within marriage has been made a crime. Leniency for rapists who
    marry their victims has been abolished. The difference between women
    and girls in sexual assault cases has been abolished.

    Provocation is no longer a defence in "honour killings" - the murder
    of women accused of illicit affairs by their relatives.

    Attacks on women that were once handled as attacks on the family or as
    creating disorder in society, will now be treated as attacks on
    individuals.

    Discrimination outlawed

    The statute of limitations for major corruption cases, especially
    involving government and business, has been abolished.


    PENAL CODE REFORM
    Assaults on women will be more heavily punished
    Rape in marriage recognised
    Life terms for perpetrators of "honour killings"
    Jail terms for the sexual molestation of children, trafficking of human
    organs and the pollution of the environment
    Tougher measures against perpetrators of torture
    Corruption in government to be tackled
    Proposal to criminalise adultery dropped



    All laws will have to be in accordance with the international
    agreements that Turkey is party to. Discrimination on religious,
    ethnic and sexual grounds has been made a crime.

    Privacy has been protected - the police will be punished for entering
    homes without good reason, the interception of telephone calls and the
    gathering of personal information restricted.

    And heavy penalties have been introduced for environmental
    destruction.

    At the time there was some muttering about problems with the code -
    that it was not clear in some areas and insufficiently progressive in
    others.

    But by and large it was welcomed as the sort of thing that would keep
    the EU happy.

    And it did. The Commission pronounced itself satisfied that Turkey had
    met the criteria for memebership negotiations to start. And the member
    states duly declared in mid-December that those negotiations would
    open in October this year.

    With a few months to ponder, it now looks as if the doubters had a
    point.

    Media anxiety

    It is the media that are protesting now. They say that several clauses
    are so vaguely worded that they are left open to legal action from
    some of Turkey's rather zealous prosecutors.


    In particular they point to a clause which bans publication of
    material that might be contrary to Turkey's "fundamental national
    interest".

    An explanation of what this fundamental national interest might be
    gives the example of "propaganda" promoting the withdrawal of Turkish
    troops from northern Cyprus or acknowledgment of the heavily disputed
    "genocide" of Armenians during World War I.

    There are other problems too.

    The old press law forbade criticism of certain state institutions; the
    new penal code has a clause, albeit rewritten, that does much the same
    thing.

    And journalists believe that a clause on obscenity could be used
    against them in ways which it is impossible to foresee.

    For a couple of weeks now journalists have been demonstrating, arguing
    and lobbying. Late last week Amnesty International weighed in,
    expressing its concern. The government indicated some sympathy but
    only now has made its move.

    So this postponement looks - though it is never good to be too
    confident about anything in Turkey's legislative process - as if it is
    just that: a delay in implementation whilst the government and
    parliament work out what to do with what many now say is a hastily and
    badly drafted piece of media regulation.

    Alarm bells may have been set ringing by the announcement of
    postponement. The EU has said that it will monitor Turkey's human
    rights situation all through the membership application process.

    But this does not look like a step back. Instead it looks more like
    the government taking time to reconsider, and perhaps acknowledge the
    shortcomings of its original legislation.
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