Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 16:56:25 +0400 (MEDT)
From: Koray Caliskan <caliskak-AT-boun.edu.tr>
Subject: Human Rights / Foucault




I wrote this message last week in order to inform list members about what 
is happening in Turkish jails. Due to yesterday night 13 prisoners died 
as a result of hunger strikes. Just after the eighth person lost her life, 
government decided to recognize (-but only recognize) the existence of 
plausable "mediators". The hunger strikes are now over. We lost 13 people.  

So I forward my question again. I interpret the silence of the list 
members on the topic due to the "hardness" of the question. 

It is sometimes the best way to judge (- and may be to reach a 
 more accurate understanding) the value of a scholarly work, is to reread 
 it with reference to some very recent events. There is a continuing 
 hunger strike in Turkish prisons for 65 days. Two of 280 prisoners died. 
 20 of them lost their chance to live without serious health 
 problems.(it is now 13 after the resolution) 
 What they demand from the government is, in a nutshell, the abandonment of 
 anti-democratic measures concerning the prisons  and closing of a prison 
 that is designed to confine "political" detainees i.e., those of them who 
 thought "wrongly"
 
The government is still refusing to accept their demands even 
 they know that tens of them will die in a couple of 12 hours.
 Hundreds of people are protesting the deafness of government 
 usually by accusing them because of their insensibilty to "human rights"
 
 So the question follows. Always bearing Foucault's comments on 
 "humanism" in our minds, how is it possible to support those people in 
 the prison. Is there an immanent, inalienable right to live? Are there 
 "human" rights? I am sure that there is nobody in this list who will 
 refuse 
the concept "human rights" without offering an alternative. BUT, how is it 
 possible to construct inalienable and non-transcendental conception of 
 human rights when we think of Foucault.

 (The crucial point is that there are some concepts 
 that cannot be easily criticised because of their political content that 
 are very useful in activating people in resisting.) 
 	
 

	Sincerely.
 	
	Koray Caliskan
 	
	Caliskak-AT-boun.edu.tr