HRC45: Oral statement during adoption of UPR outcomes on Turkey

Item 6:UPR Outcome on Turkey

Organisation: Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW)

Speaker: Claire Denman

Thank you, Madame President.

CSW welcomes Turkey’s cooperation with the UPR process.

Throughout the reporting period violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) continued despite the existence of comprehensive legislative guarantees.

While we welcome Turkey’s acceptance of recommendations to redouble efforts to guarantee freedom of religion or belief in law and practice, we regret that other key recommendations were merely noted, including on combating discrimination against ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities.

The government’s argument that “only Turkish citizens belonging to non-Muslim minorities fall within the scope of the term ‘minority’”[1] leaves Alevi Muslims, Baha’is, Christians who convert from Islam, and Christians from overseas vulnerable to discrimination at the hands of both state and non-state actors.

Changes to the staff and theological positions of the Directorate of Religious Affairs reflect a more decidedly Sunni Islamist posture and further contributes to a rise in discrimination and hate speech inciting violence towards non-Sunnis. Such incitement is visible in a variety of sectors, including the media, education, the workplace and day-to-day administrative procedures.

CSW urges Turkey to reconsider accepting recommendations on the protection of minorities and to proactively address hate speech and discrimination, conducting detailed investigations into all instances of violence targeting individuals on account of their religion or belief, and bringing perpetrators to justice.

We further call on Turkey to return all property confiscated from religious minority communities, including the Orthodox Halki Seminary, which was forcibly closed by the government in 1971 and remains shut despite promises that it would be reopened.

Lastly, CSW is concerned by the lack of clarity in the situation of Iranian Christian asylum seekers residing in Turkey. Their cases are handled directly by the Turkish authorities. As a result, refugees do not enjoy the full protection of the UNHCR and are vulnerable to intimidation and exploitation by the police and employers.

We urge Turkey to ensure that Iranian Christian refugees are afforded the full protection of the UNHCR and to take steps to end discrimination against refugees in employment and other settings.

Thank you

[1] Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review* Turkey: Addendum, Views on conclusions and/or recommendations, voluntary commitments and replies presented by the State under review, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/44/14/Add.1