Council of Europe urges Turkey to overhaul mental-health law and improve detention standards

The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture issued two separate findings on Turkey, focusing on mental-health care and detention practices. The first report, based on a 2018 visit, praised recent reforms but warned that the absence of a dedicated mental-health law leaves critical gaps in areas such as involuntary hospitalization, treatment consent and use of restraints. While facility conditions were generally satisfactory, some patients were confined without outdoor access for weeks or months, and staff workloads limited activity programs.

The 2022 report examined the treatment of foreign detainees and the conditions at the high-security F-type prison on Imrali, where four prisoners remain in long-term isolation and have been denied family and lawyer visits since August 2019. The CPT called for stricter safeguards for involuntary patients, an end to the detention of families with children in removal centres, and enforcement of penalties for any abuse or mistreatment.