Continuity and Change in Human Rights Appropriation: The Case of Turkey

Abstract

This article is part of “The (Mis)Appropriation of Human Rights by the New Global Right” Symposium forthcoming in International Journal of Constitutional Law. It analyses the political and legal dynamics of continuity and change in the appropriation of human rights in Turkey by state officials, as it has unfolded in the recent decade against the backdrop of growing authoritarian practices. Human rights appropriation in Turkey has traditionally focused on the interpretation of human rights favoring national security and secular sensibilities to determine who has human rights and to what extent. The recent decade is a case of continuity and change. Whilst the secularist frame has been replaced by a religious frame defining authentic human rights holders as members of the “pious” Turkish Muslim family and society, national security frame has remained a continuous source of human rights appropriation. The article first offers an account of the dynamics of old forms of human rights appropriation in Turkey. It then analyzes the new actors and strategies of new forms of human rights appropriation. We find that Turkey both converges with and diverges from global trends of appropriation of human rights by the new global right