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The European Union's Human Rights Promotion to Turkey

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The European Union's Human Rights Promotion to Turkey The European Union’s Human Rights Promotion to Turkey: A Question of Legitimacy Athina Gkouti Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of PhD Department of International Politics Aberystwyth University January 2014 Summary Scholars have regularly presented the EU as a ‘normative power’ that promotes human rights as a legitimate standard of international behaviour. Yet, the legitimacy of EU normative power within enlargement has not been well-defined or investigated. The overarching issue that this thesis aims to address concerns the legitimacy of EU human rights promotion to Turkey. It aims to provide an answer to a politically and intellectually challenging question: How should the European Union promote human rights to Turkey, if the country’s human rights progress is to be understood not simply as a result of domestic dynamics, but as dependent on the legitimacy of EU human rights promotion? The central aim of the thesis is to explore ideas and practices that contribute to improving the EU policy of human rights towards its non-European partners. The theoretical focus offers a fresh perspective to the study of Turkey-EU relations that relates to ‘normative power Europe’ and the legitimacy of human rights promotion. The empirical focus of the thesis explores legitimacy as being a highly significant issue which affects the long- term success or failure of EU human rights policies. It assesses the prospects and implications of EU policy and determines what is required in terms of external incitements for optimal outcomes. The original contribution of the thesis lies in its argument that EU normative power within enlargement is not intrinsic to the EU, but ought to be recognised as such through its interaction with non-European ‘others’. DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed .................Athina Gkouti..................................................... (candidate) Date .......................7 January 2014................................................. STATEMENT 1 This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Where *correction services have been used, the extent and nature of the correction is clearly marked in a footnote(s). Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. A bibliography is appended. Signed ..............................Athina Gkouti....................................... (candidate) Date ...................................7 January 2014..................................... [*this refers to the extent to which the text has been corrected by others] STATEMENT 2 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed ...............Athina Gkouti...................................................... (candidate) Date ..........................7 January 2014.............................................. NB: Candidates on whose behalf a bar on access has been approved by the University (see Note 9), should use the following version of Statement 2: I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loans after expiry of a bar on access approved by Aberystwyth University. Signed ..................................Athina Gkouti................................... (candidate) Date ……………………………7 January 2014…………………….. Contents Contents I List of Abbreviations IV Introduction 1 1. Overview and original contribution 1 2. Why study human rights promotion to Turkey from a perspective of legitimacy? 4 3. Research design 5 4. Data collection and analysis 11 5. Limitations 18 6. Chapter outline 20 Chapter One Human Rights as the EU ‘Standard of Legitimacy’ 23 1. The EU and human rights promotion: early development through European law 24 1.1. The European Court of Justice: steps forward in human rights protection 26 1.2. The Charter of Fundamental Rights (2000): 29 Internal-external consistency? 1.3. The European Parliament as a promoter of human rights 32 1.4. Treaties of European integration (1953-2009): 35 Formulation of political criteria for EU membership 2. EEC/EU enlargements and the development of human rights conditionality 41 2.1. The first enlargement: 44 the case of the United Kingdom (1973) 2.2. The Mediterranean enlargements: 48 Greece (1981), Spain and Portugal (1985) and Turkey 2.3. The Nordic enlargement and ‘impact conditionality’ (1995): 55 Finland, Sweden, and Austria I 2.4. The Eastern enlargements (2004-2007): the ‘return to Europe’ 57 3. External EU action and human rights promotion in trade and development 67 3.1. Development and trade cooperation 69 3.2. Legitimacy implications for EU human rights promotion practices 72 4. Conclusion 77 Chapter Two Legitimacy and Normative Power 79 1. A definition of legitimacy 80 2. Descriptive and prescriptive methods in the study of legitimacy for human rights promotion to Turkey 82 3. Normative power Europe in theory and practice 93 3.1. ‘Being’: the European Union’s normative difference 95 3.2. ‘Doing’: the promotion and diffusion of EU human rights norms 100 4. Legitimacy and EU normative power 106 4.1. Legitimacy as legality 109 4.2. Legitimacy as recognition by the non-European ‘other’ 111 4.3. Procedural legitimacy 115 5. Conclusion 122 Chapter Three Human Rights in Turkey and the Role of the European Union 123 1. Human rights in Turkey and EU involvement 123 2. Human rights reform and the EU ‘standard of legitimacy’ 141 2.1. Freedom of expression 142 2.2. Minority rights 144 2.3. Freedom of association 148 2.4. Freedom of religion 153 2.5. Women’s rights and gender equality 157 2.6. Prevention of torture and ill-treatment 160 3. Conclusion 162 II Chapter Four Procedural Legitimacy: EU Financial and Technical Assistance to Turkey 163 1. The Instrument of Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) 164 1.1. Project 1: Prevention of domestic violence against women 176 1.2. Project 2: Fight against violence towards children 178 1.3. Project 3: Prevention of torture 180 2. The European Instrument of Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) 182 3. Human rights consultations 192 4. Conclusion 202 Chapter Five Legitimacy as Recognition by the ‘Other’: Turkey and Internal Dilemmas of Implementation 204 1. The AKP and human rights: ‘Europe as the answer’ 205 2. The CHP and human rights: ‘European norm rejection’ 216 3. Human rights NGOs: European shared values? 224 4. Conclusion 238 Conclusion 240 1. Theoretical and empirical conclusions 240 2. Towards and alternative thinking for EU human rights promotion to Turkey 244 3. Avenues for further research 249 Bibliography 252 III List of Abbreviations AKP – Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, Justice and Development Party ALT – Association of Liberal Thinking CAP – Common Agricultural Policy CEE – Central and Eastern Europe CHP – Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, Republican People’s Party CoE – Council of Europe DG – Directorate General ECHR – European Convention of Human Rights ECtHR – European Court of Human Rights ECJ – European Court of Justice ECSC – European Coal and Steel Community EDC – European Defence Community EEC – European Economic Community EFTA – European Free Trade Association EIDHR – European Instrument of Democracy and Human Rights EP – European Parliament EPC – European Political Community EU – European Union EUPC – European Political Cooperation FYROM – Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia GDP – Gross Domestic Product HRA – Human Rights Association HRFT – Human Rights Foundation of Turkey IPA – Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance JPC – Joint Parliamentary Committee LGBT – Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transexual MHP – Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, Nationalist Action party MIPD – Multi-Annual Indicative Planning Document MEP – Member of European Parliament MP – Member of Parliament MÜSİAD – Independent Industrialists’ and Businessmen Association IV NGO – Non-Governmental Organisation NHRI – National Human Rights Institution NPE – Normative Power Europe NSC – National Security Council BDP – Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi, Peace and Democracy Party PHARE – Poland and Hungary Assistance for Restructuring of Economy PKK – Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan, Kurdistan Workers’ Party TAIEX – Technical Assistance and Information Exchange TEU – Treaty on European Union TÜSEV – Third Sector Foundation of Turkey TÜSİAD – Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association UDHR – Universal Declaration of Human Rights UK – United Kingdom UN – United Nations UNDP – United Nations Development Programme V 1 Introduction 1. Overview and original contribution The overarching issue that this thesis aims to address is one concerning EU human rights promotion and legitimacy. It aims to provide an answer to a politically and intellectually challenging question: How should the European Union promote human rights to Turkey, if the country’s human rights progress is to be understood not simply as a result of domestic dynamics, but as dependent on the legitimacy of EU human rights promotion? The central aim of the thesis is to explore ideas and practices that contribute to improving the EU policy of human rights to Turkey as a candidate state. The theoretical focus offers an alternative perspective to the study of the relationship between Turkey and the EU that relates to ‘normative power Europe’ and the legitimacy of human rights promotion. The empirical focus of the thesis
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