The report noted widespread cases of torture by security forces, deaths during detention and other killings in which the assailants remain unknown.
Turkey denies that torture is systematic or widespread.
It also defends its actions saying they are necessary to fight Kurdish terrorism. European foreign ministers meeting in Rome this week warned Turkey's bid for European Union membership faced difficulties because of its human rights record. But the United States said Wednesday Europeans should not make human rights violations in Turkey an obstacle to its joining the union. Torture methods listed in the report were cold water hosings, electric shocks, beating on the soles of the feet or genitals, sleep and clothes deprivation and rape with truncheons. Limits on freedom of expression remained another serious problem, the report said, noting that journalists and writers continued to be locked up.