Rights group urge Türkiye to lift ban on May Day demonstrations News
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Rights group urge Türkiye to lift ban on May Day demonstrations

Amnesty International called for Turkish authorities to lift the ban on May Day (also called Labor Day) gatherings in Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Wednesday.

Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for Europe, Dinushika Dissanayake, said the ban was “based on entirely spurious security and public order grounds and fly in the face of the 2023 Constitutional Court ruling. The restrictions must be urgently lifted.” Amnesty International holds that authorities have a duty to ensure the free exercise of peaceful assemblies, urging the government to “take all necessary steps to protect participants’ enjoyment of their rights”.

Davut Gül, the current governor of Istanbul, cited security concerns for the ban, and pre-emptively detained dozens of activists in anticipation of the demonstrations.

In December 2023, Türkiye’s Constitutional Court found protesters’ constitutional rights were violated in 2014 and 2015 following crackdowns against May Day gatherings in Taksim Square. Specifically, a violation was found regarding Article 34 of the Turkish Constitution protecting the right to hold meetings and demonstration marches. Similarly, in 2013, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found restrictions on May Day celebrations in Taksim Square to be an unlawful infringement on freedom of assembly, protected under Article 11 pf the ECHR. Both decisions are binding for Türkiye, and Amnesty International urges the government to respect them.

The ban has been in place since 2013, when police violently prevented trade unionists and civil society organizations from gathering and celebrating the holiday. Taksim Square is in the heart of the city and holds significant symbolic value as a place of protest for workers across the country.

Türkiye has been marred by civil unrest since Istanbul’s Mayor and opposition candidate, Ekrem İmamoğlu’s controversial arrest which sparked mass protests across the country and significant government crackdown. Those arrested have been primarily students, lawyers, and journalists. Human Rights Watch claimed: “The rushed nature and mass scale of the trials, which lack evidence of criminal wrongdoing, exemplify how Türkiye’s restrictions on the right to assembly are arbitrary and incompatible with a democratic society based on the rule of law.”

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