The Rule of Law Index, unveiled on Wednesday at the World Justice Forum in Vienna, found that Turkey’s score in the protection of freedom of thought and religion is only 0.20, out of the highest possible score of 1.00. The average scores for the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region and the upper middle income level -- the regional and socioeconomic categories of the index which Turkey is considered to be a part of -- are within the 0.60-0.80 range.Turkey has been a candidate to join the EU since 1999 and opened accession talks with the 27-nation bloc in 2005, but there has been little progress in the talks so far amid Brussels’ criticism over legal and practical deficiencies in the protection of freedom of speech. Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) is still used in the prosecution of intellectuals and activists for expression of thoughts despite recent amendments to it. Religious freedoms, both for non-Muslim minorities and the Muslim majority, are also an area where Turkey is accustomed to receiving criticism from the West.
According to the Rule of Law Index, Turkey receives a score within the 0.20-0.40 range in the protection of freedom of speech and freedom of association. This is again below the average scores of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region and the upper middle income level, which were measured to be within 0.20-0.60 range.
The index, based on interviews of 41,000 people and over 700 experts from 35 countries around the world -- including Albania, Argentina, Austria, France, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, South Africa, Thailand and the United States -- was unveiled at the World Justice Forum, bringing together approximately 350 representatives from more than 80 nations. The forum was opened on Wednesday and is due to last into Saturday.
Other areas where Turkey is found to be doing worse than its regional and socioeconomic peers are adequate training for the police, measures to protect reporters and whistleblowers from retaliation, transparency in the administrative process and government functioning, the independence of the judiciary from the government, independent auditing of the government, comprehensible laws, and effective enforcement of laws.
Turkey’s highest scores are, among others, on ensuring access to competent legal services for the poor, prohibiting and punishing crimes against property and persons, ensuring court access without bribery or excessive fees, ensuring that attorneys are competent and in sufficient numbers and ensuring the right to legal representation in criminal cases. In all these areas, Turkey’s score is above or comparable with regional and socioeconomic averages. But in two areas, although Turkey’s scores are high -- close to 0.80 -- they are still below the regional and socioeconomic averages: the suspension of rights only as the Constitution permits and the amendment of the Constitution only according to law.
The index also reveals that Turkey’s score on ensuring government officials’ accountability (0.44) is above the averages among the countries categorized in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region and in the upper middle income level (0.37 and 0.39, respectively). Concerning the accountability of military, police and prison officials, Turkey’s rating, 0.48, is also slightly higher than regional and socioeconomic averages (0.43 and 0.41). But it does worse than its regional and socioeconomic peers in ensuring that government powers are limited by the Constitution (0.63 as opposed to 0.74 for the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region and 0.77 for the upper middle income level).
The Rule of Law Index is a tool introduced by the World Justice Project, a multinational, multidisciplinary initiative launched in 2007 to strengthen the rule of law worldwide, to measure the extent to which countries around the world adhere to the rule of law.
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