Justice Minister vows greater freedoms through new Human Rights Action Plan

An action plan being penned with the contribution of the Council of Europe and civil society to boost democracy and human rights in Turkey will be announced in 2020, the justice minister has said, underlining the role of the courts in distinguishing criticism from crime in terms of enhancing the scope of the freedom of expression.

"We are in a process of drafting a human rights action plan with the cooperation of the Council of Europe and other stakeholders. We will have a meeting with the members of the human rights committee of the Parliament where the members of the opposition parties will also be present. We consider the upcoming human rights action plan as a large democratization and freedoms package," Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül told Hürriyet Daily News during a visit to Demirören Media Center on Dec. 19.

The minister informed that the action plan will be ready in 2020 and will serve as another leg of the government's efforts to strengthen democracy, human rights and rule of law.

The Turkish government has long been subject to criticism from the European Union and the Council of Europe for the deteriorated state of democracy and human rights in Turkey. Restrictions on the use of freedom of expression and of assembly, as well as structural problems, in front of an independent and impartial judicial system are at the core of these criticisms.

The government has introduced a judicial strategy reform package in the recent months with an objective to start a process to ameliorate the state of democracy, human rights and rule of law. "The future of the state should be based on the principle of rule of law," said the minister, adding that a second judicial package is under construction to move forward in terms of democratization.

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