Masarykova univerzita V brně Fakulta sociálních studií
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- 4. Europeanization of policy
- 4.1 Human Rights policy
- 4.2 Constitutional changes of 2001 and 2004
3.6 SummaryIn this chapter we were analyzing the influence of the process of Europeanization on the political parties and the party system, including electorate and elections. Concerning the parties, we can see two similar cases and reactions on the EU incentives – the CHP and the MHP, both of them with positive statements about EU in their programs, but in the rhetoric and activities rather Euroskeptic. Neither of them made significant change in its programmatics or organizational structure, nor created new or stronger links with organizations beyond the national system. Their attitude towards the issue may be influenced by their position in the political arena – both of them are in the relevant periods in opposition, so the discrepancies between the programs and activities can be explained by their aversion to the government’s approaches. The case of the AKP is different, the party was created right at the beginning of the examined period and has had the EU issues included in all the programs. Its attitude to the integration is highly positive and Turkey’s membership in the EU is perceived like the main political goal of the party. The special position of the party is also given by the fact, that it has been during the whole period at the same time the ruling party, thus its stances and attitudes are also projected to the activities of the government. The EU is covered in the party’s programmatics, less in the organizational changes, but there exist a person responsible for the communication with the EU and also with associated organizations abroad. The characteristics of the party system as well as the electorate and elections were affected by the EU rather in an indirect way. By attenuate emphasis that was put on the EU topic in the elections we can explain the voters’ choice for the most pro-EU party in the system at the same time when the public support for the EU membership was decreasing. The party system was influenced more by the domestic issues and the processes that were perceived as domestic democratization than intensely by the Europeanization process itself. In general, when we try to identify the result of the Europeanization process in the politics dimension, we could state it was a subject of absorption and transformation (in the AKP case and indirectly in the party system) and in a sense indifference (in the cases of the CHP and the MHP, where they try to postpone conducting of the changes required). 4. Europeanization of policyIn the last chapter I will try to examine how and to which extent the policy dimension was affected by Europeanization on the concrete case of human rights policy. This policy is one of the areas, where the need of consolidation was and is forcefully emphasized from the EU side towards the candidate countries, as it compose one of the Copenhagen political criteria. As this subject is considerably broad to be examined to all appearance, emphasis will be put primarily on several essential topics like of freedom of expression, fight against torture and ill-treatment, protection of minorities and freedom of associations. The chapter begins with the most important Constitutional changes in the years 2001 and 2004, followed by legal changes brought by harmonization packages and at last the recent development is considered. Afterwards the chapter of institutional framework follows. Proceeding through the legislative changes adopted in the examined periods and observing the institutional structure that carries out the policy, I will try to find out and describe the changes in terms of institutional adoption, change in distribution of power and resources, changes in actors’ behavior.53
Among the significant changes concerning human rights we can count transformation of Article 13 as a general restrictive clause into a general protective clause by this amendment. The original text of his article included various reasons, which were applicable to the restriction of all rights and liberties could also be restricted by the reasons stated in their specific articles.54 The 2001 reforms eliminated the general reasons for restriction stated in Article 13 and specified that fundamental rights and liberties can only be constrained by the reasons given in their specific articles. Furthermore, limits were placed on these restrictions to ensure that the requirements of a democratic social order and conformity to the words were maintained. Two further points were added to Article 13 as limits to restrictions on the fundamental rights and liberties. One is the principle of proportionality, the other is the provision that no restriction could infringe upon the essence of a fundamental right and liberty (Yazıcı 2004: 96). The most notable changes concerning minorities in 2001 Constitutional changes were removing of the restriction on the use of any language prohibited by law in the expression and dissemination of thought and lessening of restrictions on broadcasting in and the right to learn ‘different languages and dialects traditionally used by citizens in their lives’, namely Kurdish (Derviş et al. 2004: 18). Another important change was the restriction of the death penalty to crimes committed during war or the imminent threat thereof and to acts of terrorism. The latter exception was later eliminated by the democratization package of August 2002. The death penalty including the cases of war or the imminent threat of war has been totally abolished by the 2004 constitutional amendment. In addition, three other references to death penalty in Articles 15, 17 and 87 of the Constitution were deleted. This meant that Turkey has achieved conformity with the standards of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, and also removed the constitutional obstacle for the ratification of the 13th Additional Protocol to the European Convention of Human Rights (Özbudun and Yazıcı 2004: 22; Turkey progress report 2004: 28). The articles concerning the principle of equality were amended in 2004 with a provision stating that women and men have equal rights and the state is obliged to put this equality into effect in order to strengthen the social position of women in the society (Yazıcı 2004: 98). The 2004 amendment to the article regulating international agreements influenced enlarging the scope of fundamental rights and liberties and strengthening their safeguards. This amendment puts international agreements on fundamental rights and liberties somewhere in between constitutional norms and ordinary legislation, thereby guaranteeing the application of the European Convention of Human Rights and other international agreements pertaining to fundamental rights and liberties more effectively (Özbudun and Yazıcı 2004: 26). Directory: 52095 52095 -> Key Concept 1 Technological advances, large-scale production methods, and the opening of new markets encouraged the rise of industrial capitalism in the United States Download 370.43 Kb. Share with your friends:
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