29/11/2012 | Writer: Kaos GL
Pembe Hayat and Kaos GL published a press statement and demanded the removal of the seals in front of the houses of transgenders in Avcılar Meis Buildings.
Pembe Hayat and Kaos GL published a press statement and demanded the removal of the seals in front of the houses of transgenders in Avcılar Meis Buildings.
The whole text of the press statement:
The incident happened on October 3rd, 2012 in Avcılar as a group of residents made a hate speech saying “We don’t want transvestites in our lives.” With the collaboration of the “residents” and the police, 15 transgender citizens were taken into custody for performing prostitution.
On November 6, 2012, the houses of transgenders living in Meis Buildings were sealed.
We learned it sadly that the houses of transgenders living in Avcılar Meis Buildings were sealed. It is a violation of the housing and privacy rights of transgender women.
In the 1982 Constitution of Turkish Republic, Article 20 protects the privacy and Article 21 protects the housing rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights protects the privacy rights in Article 12, and UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights defines this privacy right in Article 17.
Istanbul police, by sealing the houses of transgenders, violates this right as well as Article 20 and 21 in the Constitution and Article 17 in UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
No one’s housing rights can be seized. Unless there is a court verdict or a written order by the jurisdiction concerning the protection of national security, public safety, public health and morality or the rights and freedom of others; no house can be broken in or investigated, no property can be confiscated. The verdict is presented to the judge for acceptance. The judge declares the decision in forty-eight hours after the confiscation, otherwise the confiscation is no longer valid.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights defines the privacy rights as follows: “Article 12- No one’s privacy, family, housing or communication can be interfered arbitrarily, or attacked in the name of honor.
Everyone has the right to be protected by the law against these interferences and attacks.”
We don’t want ghettos but the whole city!
The exclusion of LGBTs (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) by lynch and exiling policies and making them live only in the ghettos, cannot be accepted.
We won’t keep silent to this incident that transgender citizens can no longer live in Avcılar due to the “neighborhood” blockade controlled by the police and the media.
No poll taxes to transgenders!
Twelve of the transgenders taken into custody were fined with 169 TL for “Misdemeanor Law”, three of them were sent to the court for “mediating prostitution”.
Transgender existence is not a crime! Stop the poll taxes to trangenders by Misdemeanor Law!
How do you expect transgenders to pay the “fines” when you arrest them for “performing prostitution” ? While the laws prevent transgenders to participate in social and economic life eually as others, the police becomes the ‘mediator’ in the vicious cycle of ‘prostitution’ by applying the same rules in an arbitrary way!
The housing rights of transgenders can not be seized!
Which legal barriers prevent transgenders to buy or rent an estate? Is every transgender citizen going to be treated as guilty for “mediating prostitution” everytime they buy or rent a house?
In our country where prostitution is not a “crime”, transgenders stand as “guilty with no guilt” and are exposed to arbitrary custodies, bad treatment and torture. They are forced to migrate by the neighbourhood pressure supported by police.
The ones who mediate or be a mere spectator to the lynch and exiling efforts which seize the housing rights and put the citizens’ security at risk are guilty themselves!
Stop sealing the houses of transgenders. The housing rights of transgender citizens cannot be seized!
Translation: Birce Pekkan
Tags: life
