Lawyers in Turkey are being subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention and judicial harassment for merely defending their clients’ rights in politically sensitive cases.
As a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), Turkey is legally obligated to ensure that individuals within its territory enjoy, without discrimination, the right to be presumed innocent, the right not to be arbitrarily arrested or detained, the right to pre-trial release and to be brought to trial within a reasonable time and the right to obtain a remedy in relation to any violation of these rights.
