UK Civil Society Women’s Alliance expresses concern about ‘ambassadors crisis’

The co-chairs of the International Working Group of the UK Civil Society Women’s Alliance (UKCSWA), an NGO umbrella for over 80 UK women’s NGOs, wrote to the Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities Anneiiese Dodds to express concern about the “unfair trials and detentions of women in Turkey. One of us, Margaret Owen, also writes from the perspective of a UK human rights lawyer who has often observed unfair political trials in Turkey, and as a Patron of Peace in Kurdistan. We are appalled at the threatened expulsion this week of the 10 Western ambassadors for protesting the continued detention of Osmond Kavala and Selahattin Demirtaş, and grieved that the UK Ambassador has not joined them in pleading for the release of these two men, as demanded by the European Court of Human Rights.”

The letter added: “However, we would ask that you also use all your diplomatic powers to ask the Turkish authorities to urgently review the unfair trials of so many innocent Turkish/ Kurdish women. They include parliamentarians, co-mayors, lawyers, journalists, academics, and women’s rights activists who are now facing long prison sentences, in appalling conditions, and under fictitious charges that they are members of, or support terrorist organisations.”

The letter ended with the following remarks: “We as UK women citizens are distressed that our own government is silent when confronted with Turkey’s indifference to the Rule of Law, and its silence, even with clear evidence of breaches of International human rights and humanitarian law, is deafening. Perhaps the presence of Turkey’s Prime Minister in Glasgow next week will offer an opportunity to raise this issue.”