Kurdish Linguistic Rights in the Courtroom Report 2023

 

KURDISH LINGUISTIC RIGHTS IN THE COURTROOM 2023

The 2023 Kurdish Linguistic Rights in the Courtroom Report, courtesy of PEN Norway, explores the standard of provision of Kurdish-Turkish interpretation services within Turkey’s courtrooms.

The discrimination and frustrations faced by these defendants, as highlighted in this survey, are a clear violation of linguistic rights, and reflect the vital need for reform within the judicial system.

PEN Norway: KURDISH LINGUISTIC RIGHTS IN THE COURTROOM 2023

A survey-based report to determine the standard of provision of Kurdish-Turkish interpretation services in Turkey's courtrooms and to guage the experiences of defendants wishing to give evidence, statements or defence in their own 

language. 

2023 ©PEN Norveç, Aralık 2022

This report is produced by PEN Norway. PEN Norway is an independent and non-profit membership organisation based in Oslo and dedicated to defending freedom of expression and supporting writers  at risk and writers in prison. PEN Norway’s goal is that everyone should have the right to express themselves freely.

Author: Caroline Stockford, PEN Norway Turkey Adviser

Introduction

During the course of PEN Norway's decades of work in monitoring the rights of freedom of expression and freedom of the media in Turkey it has always been clear that there exists prejudicial treatment for Kurdish journalists and defendants in court. We have often observed the pretrial detention of Kurdish editors and 

journalists in prisons a great distance from the place of their arrest and have observed differential treatment of suspects in the same case, based on their ethnicity (for example Evrensel journalists Uğur and Polat, Mersin, 2019). Our work with imprisoned journalists such as Nedim Türfent and our interviews with him have cast light on the abysmal provision of Kurdish-Turkish interpretation services in the court room. Türfent applied at seven different hearings to 

give his testimony in Kurdish and reported a considerable lack of training and capacity on the part of the interpreter provided.

In 2022 PEN Norway designed and sent out a survey to over 250 Kurdish persons who had been the subject of criminal proceedings during the past 6 years. Two women lawyers took the survey into prisons and people's homes in order to determine the level of provision of interpreting for those who wish to use their first language when subject to legal proceedings.

This is a first draft of our report. We will be adding further data on current interpreting provision and expert opinions on the strategy to create a register of examined interpreters to work in court rooms in Turkey. The report is due to be published in full in August 2023.

PEN Norway abides by and supports PEN International's Girona 

Manifesto on Linguistic Rights (see end of report).

PEN Norway would like to express their appreciation to all participants, to the lawyers who garnered 225 responses to our survey and to Turkey-based NGO supporting lawyers and journalists, MLSA (Media Law Studies Association) for their assistance and research at the beginning of this project. The data in this survey has been anonymised to protect the privacy nd rights of freedom of expression of the participants.

The responses to the majority of questions posed are presented in this draft report. A wider selection of narrative responses and an analysis based upon them will be included in the full report. To access the final report of PEN Norway on Kurdish Linguistic Rights in the Courtroom 2023, please contact Turkey Adviser Caroline Stockford via email to request a copy to be sent, once published. 

caroline@norskpen.no

The report here/