| dc.description.abstract | As Turkey is not a member of the European Union, Directives 2000/43/EC and 2000/78/EC have not been transposed or implemented. The Law on the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey (No. 6701), the anti-discrimination law adopted in 2016, prohibits direct, indirect and multiple discrimination as well as instruction to discriminate, discrimination by assumption, segregation, harassment and mobbing in the workplace. Discrimination by association is not included. The grounds covered by the Law are limited and it prohibits discrimination only on the basis of sex, race, colour, language, religion, belief, denomination, philosophical or political opinion, ethnic origin, wealth, birth, marital status, health, disability and age. Furthermore, there are anti-discrimination provisions in the Constitution and in several laws. Most notable among the laws with anti-discrimination clauses is the Law on Persons with Disabilities, which could be considered as an anti-discrimination law. However, the law prohibits discrimination solely on the ground of disability and has limited material scope. In addition, various laws, including the Labour Law, the Turkish Penal Code and the Law on National Education, have anti-discrimination clauses, but again with limited material scope. Sexual orientation is not enumerated in any of the laws, including the Law on the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey, or in the Constitution, despite the consistent efforts of human rights and LGBTI+ associations. Age is explicitly listed as a protected ground only in the Law on the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey. However, as with sexual orientation, age was also recognised as a ground by the Constitutional Court. The said laws and provisions, as well as precedents set by the Constitutional Court, are not being implemented. While hatred and incitement to hatred are prohibited under the Turkish Penal Code, as noted by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), the ‘definition of hate crime is excessively narrow and the Criminal Code does not explicitly provide that racist and homo/transphobic motivation constitutes an aggravating circumstance’. Moreover, hate speech grounds are exhaustive and do not include ethnicity, age and sexual orientation. Besides, existing provisions are scarcely applied to cases of hate crimes or hate speech. The anti-discrimination law does not prohibit hate speech or hate crime. The Constitutional Court for the first time found a violation in a hate speech case in 2021. | en_US |
