Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said on Friday that Turkey is resolved to eliminate shortcomings in human rights "as every country which has adopted pluralist democracy."

Sezer said in a released message on World Human Rights Day that taking human rights under guarantee was no more an internal problem of countries, but had become a common goal of humanity today, the semi-official Anatolia News Agency reported.

"Respect for human rights is among the principles carved on stone of our republic," noted Sezer, pointing out that the level of civilization of a country was being measured by that country's respect for human rights and human rights was a system of values nowadays, on which all contemporary democracies were based.

After the European Union (EU) started entry talks with Turkey on Oct. 3, the European Commission called on Turkey to do more to improve human rights and said it was still uncovering evidence of torture and ill-treatment of minorities.

According to the EU report, there were 331 complaints of torture to Human Rights Association of Turkey in the first three months of this year.

Source: Xinhua