ILGA issued a press statement about new Turkish Penal Law
Below is the letter ILGA prepared in order to raise international concern on the new Turkish Penal Code that went to effect on June 1, 2005.
Dear Prime Minister,
ILGA, the International Lesbian and Gay Association, and KAOS gl, a Turkish organisation, both fighting for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights, are worried about Article 122 of the new Turkish Penal Code.
Article 122, which forbids discrimination on the basis of "language, race, colour, gender, political thought, philosophical belief, religion, denomination and other reasons" originally listed "sexual orientation." This was removed from the draft at the last moment.
ILGA shares Kaos’s concerns and insists that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation be banned in the Turkish Penal Code and we urge the government to take the necessary actions to amend the Penal Code in order to:
- Ban and criminalise discrimination based on sexual orientation
- Remove the article penalising consensual sexual relations between young people of 15 to 18 years of age. This clearly violates the Children’s Rights Protocol and the Global Declaration of Human Rights, both ratified by Turkey.
- Amend the “obscenity” article by clearly defining what constitutes “obscenity”.
Finally we invite the authorities to listen to the concerns expressed by the press and human rights groups such as Amnesty International and take further steps to amend or abolish problematic articles of the TPC, such as Articles 305 and 301 related to freedom of expression.
We hope that this appeal will receive your utmost attention.
Yours respectfully
Dear Prime Minister,
ILGA, the International Lesbian and Gay Association, and KAOS gl, a Turkish organisation, both fighting for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights, are worried about Article 122 of the new Turkish Penal Code.
Article 122, which forbids discrimination on the basis of "language, race, colour, gender, political thought, philosophical belief, religion, denomination and other reasons" originally listed "sexual orientation." This was removed from the draft at the last moment.
ILGA shares Kaos’s concerns and insists that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation be banned in the Turkish Penal Code and we urge the government to take the necessary actions to amend the Penal Code in order to:
- Ban and criminalise discrimination based on sexual orientation
- Remove the article penalising consensual sexual relations between young people of 15 to 18 years of age. This clearly violates the Children’s Rights Protocol and the Global Declaration of Human Rights, both ratified by Turkey.
- Amend the “obscenity” article by clearly defining what constitutes “obscenity”.
Finally we invite the authorities to listen to the concerns expressed by the press and human rights groups such as Amnesty International and take further steps to amend or abolish problematic articles of the TPC, such as Articles 305 and 301 related to freedom of expression.
We hope that this appeal will receive your utmost attention.
Yours respectfully
