28 Hunger Strike in the Pendulum of Ethics and Law value that must be respected by the State in its all acts and actions. The last paragraph of Article 82 of Law no. 5275 also entails that the coercive measures to be taken must not be of derogatory nature. This requirement laid down therein is the citation of the known facts. If it had not been cited, there would be still nothing to decrease the State’s obligation to respect human dignity under the Constitution and international conventions. At this point, it should be useful to take into consideration the recommendation given to the physicians by the World Medical Association in the Tokyo Declaration, which was last updated in 2016:89 “Where a prisoner refuses nourishment and is considered by the physician as capable of forming an unimpaired and rational judgment concerning the consequences of such a voluntary refusal of nourishment, he or she shall not be fed artificially, as stated in WMA Declaration of Malta on Hunger Strikers. The decision as to the capacity of the prisoner to form such a judgment should be confirmed by at least one other independent physician. The consequences of the refusal of nourishment shall be explained by the physician to the prisoner.” As is seen, force-feeding is categorically rejected even if it will be performed for the sake of the prisoner in terms of medical ethics.90 In the same vein, in the report issued by the United Nations Committee against Torture in 2016 with respect to Israel, it was considered that pursuant to the Israeli legislation, the force-feeding of a hunger striker (even if he has full capacity to form a judgment) without his consent constituted a violation of the prohibition of ill-treatment and was found in breach of the UN Convention against Torture (Article 16).91 In the report of the UN Human Rights Committee regarding Guantanamo,USA, it is stated that force-feeding is in itself a violation of human rights; and that in cases where this violation is accompanied 89 Turkish version of the WMA Declaration of Tokyo, with official name “Guidelines for Physicians Concerning Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in relation to Detention and Imprisonment”, is available at https://www.ttb.org.tr/images/ stories/haberler/file/DTB_Tokyo_Bildirgesi_2016.pdf (08.02.2021) 90 Levy, p. 22. 91 The report is available at https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a99c6a4.html (08.02.2021).
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