UN experts slam Turkey’s ‘crackdown’ on LGBTQ organisations

LGBTQ activists hold placards and chant slogans during a May Day rally in Istanbul in 2023. (EPA Images pic) GENEVA: UN human rights experts on Tuesday slammed what they called the "severe crackdown" on LGBTQ organisations in Turkey, saying legitimate rights work was being unduly restricted.

Turkey's LGBTQ community has increasingly come under pressure from the authorities, with president Recep Tayyip Erdogan describing it as a "deviant movement" of "perverts".

The authorities recently launched a major clampdown on the LGBTQ community, raiding gay bars, nightclubs and the homes of activists and community members.

"Turkey must end the harassment of LGBTI human rights defenders and organisations and ensure a safe and enabling environment in which they can exercise their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association and continue their legitimate work without fear of arrest, intimidation, stigmatisation or criminalisation," the UN experts said in a statement.

Although same-sex relations are legal in Turkey, hostility towards LGBTQ people remains widespread.

The UN experts said Turkey's justice ministry has announced judicial measures against more than 160 individuals and 20 associations and businesses.

On Sept 30, as part of its "My Family is Safe" operation, Turkey shut down the website and social media accounts of T24, a leading independent digital news website, citing its "LGBT propaganda".

"We are concerned that investigations reportedly invoke offences relating to 'obscenity', 'morality' and prostitution, alongside official statements describing associations as promoting 'LGBT and immorality' and the framing of LGBTI persons as a threat to families," the UN experts said.

"We demand an immediate end to the so-called 'My Family Is Safe' operation.

"We demand the immediate release of persons detained solely for their legitimate human rights work."

The experts included the special rapporteurs on human rights defenders, the independence of judges, freedom of expression, and freedom of peaceful association.

The statement was also penned by the expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

UN experts are independent figures appointed by the Human Rights Council. They do not, therefore, speak for the United Nations itself.

The experts said they were in contact with the Turkish government on the matter.

Turkish justice minister Akin Gurlek has said the "My Family is Safe" operation was launched as part of Erdogan's "Decade of the Family", which is aimed at "protecting our children, the institution of the family and social order".