Human Rights Performance: The Cases of Turkey and Poland in 2017

International protection of Human Rights seeks to safeguard the dignity and worth of the human being as such, especially in relation to his/her own State or lack thereof. The European Union, as an International Organisation, is concerned with the promotion of these values within its border and in its relations with outer partners. One of the states whose democratic performance has concerned academics and civil society the most is the Republic of Turkey, where the deterioration of the quality of democracy has been a virtually unanimous finding within academia. Besides this candidate country, Poland, as an actual member state, has also risen some concerns. Given this scenario, it is the intention of this chapter to evaluate some indicators related to the compliance with Human Rights in Turkey and Poland in 2017, and compare each other. It is believed that this analysis will be able to answer the research question behind this study: is compliance with Human Rights in candidates and member states of the EU differently perceived by this organisation? Which mechanisms are involved in promoting the respect for Human Rights in these cases? This reflection will be based on a literature review on the subjects under consideration, in addition to the use of official documents such as the European Commission progress reports, Human Rights Watch annual reports, quantitative indicators of various international organizations in the dimensions under scrutiny and also analysis of the statistics of the European Court of Human Rights. Through this course, it is hoped to infer inductively conclusions about the evolution of compliance and respect for human rights in Turkey and Poland and, possibly, to associate this performance with the course of democratic consolidation that the countries have been going through for several decades.