Turkish diplomat who hushed up torture report on Turkey nominated for UN anti-torture committee

In what could be seen as a highly cynical action by the Turkish government, a Turkish ambassador who prevented the publication of a Council of Europe (CoE) torture report has become a candidate for membership on the UN anti-torture committee.

Ambassador Erdoğan Şerif İşcan, who vetoed the publication of a 2016 report by the CoE’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), is Turkey’s candidate to serve on the Committee Against Torture (CAT), Nordic Monitor has learned.

İşcan had served as the permanent representative from Turkey to the CoE in Strasbourg during which time the government came under increasing criticism for human rights violations at the council and was accused of conducting a systematic, deliberate campaign of torture and ill treatment of detainees under a two-year-long state of emergency declared after a failed coup in 2016.

İşcan has also kept silent on reports of the plight of his former colleagues who were subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment while in police custody in Ankara. Against the backdrop of his track record of preventing publication of the torture report and his silence in the face of the the government’s purge of hundreds of diplomats on dubious charges, İşcan’s nomination has attracted criticism.


Nordic Monitor

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