In a report documenting 10 cases in which people were seriously injured by excessive and violent use of tear gas by police against Gezi Park protestors, Human Rights Watch urged Turkish authorities to immediately issue improved guidelines on when and how teargas may be used that include a prohibition on firing teargas canisters in confined areas or directly at people. HRW said Turkish authorities should strictly enforce the policy and hold accountable police officers who do not comply with the guidelines.

“Teargas canisters can inflict serious ‒ even life threatening ‒ wounds when fired directly at demonstrators, and that happened over and over again at Gezi Park,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, senior Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The police and their commanders who used these canisters in such an irresponsible way should be held to account for inflicting unnecessary harm and endangering lives” , she said.

On July 16, 2013, the European Court of Human Rights ruled (Abdullah Yaşa and Others v. Turkey application no. 44827/08) that improper firing of tear gas by Turkish police directly at protestors, injuring a 13 year old, had violated human rights, and called for stronger safeguards to minimize the risk of death and injury resulting from its use.

HRW remarked that the policing of the Gezi protests began with the violent dispersal of peaceful demonstrators using excessive amounts of teargas and water cannon. In addition to the people injured by teargas canisters and in other ways, four protesters and a police officer died from other causes in the course of the protests, the organization said and underlined that "International guidelines such as the UN Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms stipulate that the police are expected to use discretion in crowd control tactics to ensure a proportionate response to any threat of violence, and to avoid exacerbating the situation".

The organization also pointed out that "In addition to firing teargas canisters directly at protesters during the Gezi Park protests, police fired teargas in huge quantities into confined spaces, a hotel, a hospital, and makeshift health clinics in contravention of police guidelines. They used pepper spray on people who posed no threat and directed a water cannon at a hotel and a hospital entrance".

HRW said that the organization obtained a copy of a circular issued on June 26 by the Interior Ministry with procedures for use of force by law enforcement authorities against unauthorized demonstrations, focusing in particular on the use of teargas. It said the circular instructed police to warn demonstrators before firing teargas, to use water cannon before teargas, and to avoid targeting enclosed spaces, schools, hospitals, care homes, and people not participating in the demonstration. However -it said- the circular says nothing about directly targeting protesters at close range, a major cause of the most serious teargas-related injuries during the demonstrations.

The organization said that in response to Human Rights Watch inquiries, a spokesman for the police union, Emniyet-Sen, said police are trained in how to use teargas and teargas launchers and that the incorrect use of teargas during the policing of the Gezi protests “was not an issue of training but an issue of not being able to analyze the situation.” HRW remarked that the policeman said that excessively long working hours, exhaustion, lack of experience, and messages from high-ranking officers and authorities contributed to abuses.

Basing on its interviews with victims, witnesses, lawyers, and medical personnel about the teargas incidents, HRW documented 10 cases of serious injuries, caused by police forces firing teargas canisters right at the demonstrators at close range. The organization noted that the ten documented cases are among the dozens that local medical and human rights groups recorded of people with serious head or upper body injuries caused by teargas canisters fired from launchers.

Turkey has a poor record on holding the police and security forces accountable for abuses, excessive use of force, torture and other ill-treatment, and unlawful killings, as Human Rights Watch has repeatedly documented.

Specifically in the context of peaceful protests, the European Court of Human Rights has on at least three occasions expressed concern about Turkish police use of harmful gases such as teargas and pepper spray. It ultimately held Turkey responsible for injuries in each case and concluded that there had been a violation of the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment.

“Following the Gezi protests, there needs to be a full public inquiry into policing tactics, decision-making, and the chain of command ‒ reaching to the top,” Sinclair-Webb said. “Prosecuting abuses by individual junior officers will not be enough to deter the police from doing the very same thing in the future.”