Human rights violations in Turkey have "decreased at an extraordinary rate" since it declared its candidacy for EU membership, but the progress made is still unsatisfactory," a leading Turkish human rights group said Saturday.
"Human rights violations have decreased at an extraordinary rate in the last six months, but the situation is still active," the head of the Human Rights Association (IHD), Husnu Ondul, told a news conference according to Anatolia news agency.
The IHD report said cases of torture dropped to 263 between January and June this year from 334 in the same period last year, while the number of detentions decreased compared to 35,200 to 15,980.
Ondul said that "the figures are generally encouraging, but they should come down to zero."
Turkey has come under increasing pressure to improve its human rights record, particularly the rights of its Kurdish population since being accepted as a candidate for European Union membership last December - ANKARA (AFP)
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