Przemoc wobec kobiet kurdyjskich w więzieniach tureckich jako forma tortur de facto usankcjonowanych przez państwo

Abstract

The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the situation of Kurdish women who are serving a sentence of imprisonment or being held in detention or in one of police antiterrorist units and to portray this situation in the light of Turkey’s international legal commitments. The main thesis that authors are trying to prove is the statement that tortures and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which women experience during serving the punishment is de facto a state-sanctioned form of oppression. The first part of this article is dedicated mainly to present the background of the problem which is composed, among others of short outline of Turkey-Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Kurdish: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan; PKK) conflict, the role of women in the PKK and the position of women in Kurdish society. The next part of this analysis is dedicated to portray the international legal commitments of Turkey which is a signatory of majority of most important from the point of view of human rights documents and declarations. The aim of the third part of this review is to present the real situation of Kurdish women who are serving a sentence of imprisonment or being held in the custody under the pretext of having connections to PKK and next, to reveal discrepancy between this situation and norms and standards resulting from Turkey’s conventional commitments which are mentioned above. The aim of carried out in the last part of this article, based on two cases that was brought in front of the European Court for Human Rights case study is to prove that the problem of using violence, especially a sexual violence, against Kurdish women in Turkish prisons and custodies by Turkish prison service officers and the impunity of them is still a real and actual problem, despite the fact that Turkey implements changes in it’s legislation that theoretically should prevent this kind of ill-treatment and abusing of power.