06/05/2016 Monitoring
Ingebjørg Godskesen (Norway, EC) and Nataša Vuckovic (Serbia, SOC), co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for post-monitoring dialogue with Turkey, are to pay a fact-finding visit to Istanbul, Diyarbakir and Ankara from 9 to 12 May 2016, to look at the functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey.
On 9 May, in Istanbul, the co-rapporteurs are to meet with representatives of the media, journalists’ associations and NGO officials, among others.
The following day, in Diyarbakir, a number of meetings are planned, including with the governor, the mayor, the public prosecutor and MPs from the region, as well as with representatives of human rights organisations.
On 11 and 12 May, in Ankara, talks are to be held with the President of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal, the foreign affairs minister and officials from the interior, justice, family and social policy and European affairs ministries, as well as with representatives of parliamentary groups, judges’ and prosecutors’ associations and NGOs.
On 9 March this year, PACE’s Monitoring Committee expressed “serious concern” over restrictions on media freedom and access to pluralistic information, challenges to the decisions of the Constitutional Court and the erosion of the rule of law, as well as the human rights situation of people living in south-east Turkey.
It asked its co-rapporteurs for post-monitoring dialogue with Turkey to pay a fact-finding visit to the country with a view to presenting a report on the functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey during the June 2016 part-session.