In an open letter published under the signature “Abya Yala,” fifty-three lawyers from different Latin American countries sharply criticized life sentences and long-term imprisonment practices in Turkey. The lawyers demanded the immediate implementation of the “right to hope” for thousands of prisoners, foremost Abdullah Öcalan.
The letter was sent to the Turkish Ministry of Justice and the Council of Europe as part of a campaign carried out across Abya Yala. The same campaign was also supported by prominent social and legal organizations such as COPINH, Mujeres y la Sexta, Gremial de Abogados (Argentina), Liga por los Derechos Humanos (Argentina), and MES from Brazil.
The letter emphasized that life sentences without the possibility of release disregard human dignity and clearly violate the European Convention on Human Rights. It pointed out that both the general case law of the European Court of Human Rights and its rulings concerning Abdullah Öcalan have found such practices to constitute a violation of the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment.
While noting that tens of thousands of prisoners in Turkey are effectively condemned to hopelessness, the letter highlighted Öcalan’s situation as a political and legal symbol. The lawyers stated that Öcalan’s prolonged detention under severe isolation conditions is not only an individual rights violation, but also a serious obstacle to a democratic and peaceful solution to the Kurdish question.
The letter further underlined that the failure of the Council of Europe and European Union institutions to ensure the implementation of their decisions regarding Turkey undermines the credibility of international law and exposes the hypocrisy of an international system that claims to defend human rights at the level of rhetoric.
Abya Yala lawyers stressed that in Latin America, human dignity and the rehabilitative purpose of punishment are constitutional principles, underlining that punishment cannot be an unlimited power of the state. The letter concluded by calling on Turkey to recognize the right to hope, and on Europe and the international community to ensure the full implementation of ECtHR rulings, particularly in the case of Öcalan.
Öcalan is an important philosopher for peace and social transformation
One of the campaign’s coordinators, Professor of Criminal Law Diana Restrepo, shared the following messages in a video published as part of the campaign: “Prisons everywhere in the world have poor conditions. However, European states and Turkey constantly claim that these are necessary to protect human rights. This is not true; human rights are not protected in their prisons. In the case of Turkey, there are numerous complaints and applications regarding poor prison conditions, and the state does not guarantee the ‘right to hope’ recognized by international law. This right must be granted to all persons sentenced to absolute life imprisonment or long-term prison sentences.
For all these reasons, as a professor of criminal law from Abya Yala, I demand the implementation of the Right to Hope for all prisoners, and especially for Abdullah Öcalan. Öcalan is an extremely important philosopher in the world in terms of peace and social transformation.”