Workers’ and human rights in Turkey

This briefing provides background on the situation in Turkey, highlights our demands to the governments of Turkey and the United Kingdom, and includes a series of actions that activists can take in their own branch or region.

The denial of workers’ and human rights in Turkey is nothing new, but the situation has become significantly worse since the government imposed a state of emergency in July 2016. In little over two years President Erdogan and the government of Turkey have used a series of draconian presidential decrees to suppress the rights of any perceived opponents, including trade unionists, public service workers, human rights defenders, journalists, the judiciary, politicians and academics. As a result, democracy, human and workers’ rights and the rule of law have been severely diminished, and continue to be eroded, despite the official end of the state of emergency in July 2018.