February is LGBT+ History Month in Britain. During this annual month-long observance, the UK puts the historic experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (LGBTI+) and their fight for equal rights in the spotlight. The aim of the month is simple: to raise awareness of, and combat prejudice against, LGBTI+ people, and to […]
Love transcends language, religion, race, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age. Many of us look at our parents and grandparents in awe as they celebrate decades together and care for each other, with the same love as their first days together. For better, for worse, in sickness and in health, they have suffered conflicts, war, […]
The Council of Europe (CoE) has decided to launch infringement proceedings against Turkey for failing to implement a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The matter will now revert back to Europe’s top human rights court to assess whether a violation has occurred. The ECHR had ordered the immediate release of Turkish […]
Turkey’s award-winning journalist Can Dündar and Sarah Clarke of British human rights group ARTICLE 19 will be in conversation about the downturn in human rights and democracy around the world, and the need for increased co-operation in defending these vital rights. The online discussion takes place in the context of growing populism and autocracy. In recent […]
Complaints of torture and ill-treatment of those in custody have grown significantly in Turkey during the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) 18-year term in power, according to a new report. A total of 27,493 people alleged they were subjected to abuse by the police or gendarmerie in Turkey between 2002 and 2020, said opposition MP […]
We are Nigerian students schooling in a lesser known part of the world called the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC). For those who have never visited, it is one of two states on the island of Cyprus, located in the Eastern Mediterranean, but for us it is our second home. If you have been […]
Amnesty International, the US State Department, and Nacho Sánchez Amor, the European Parliament’s Rapporteur on Turkey, led the international calls for the immediate release of Osman Kavala. The Turkish businessman has been held in jail since November 2017 despite not being convicted of any crime. A crescendo of calls for Mr Kavala’s freedom came on […]
Greece has failed to implement a human rights ruling against the closure of Turkish associations, 10 years after it was handed down. The country was slammed by the Committee of Ministers, the Council of Europe’s statutory decision-making body, over a case relating to the “violations of the right to freedom of association”as set out in […]
“Kardeş kardeşi satmaz,”Rukiye Turdush, a Canada-based advocate for the persecuted Uyghur minority in China said, switching from her local Turkic dialect spoken in China’s western Xinjiang region to the Anatolian dialect spoken in Turkey. A brother does not sell out his brother. “Uyghurs never lose hope in Turkey. They strongly believe that sooner or later […]
For the second week running, mothers seeking to peacefully demonstrate and demand information about their missing children were denied the right to hold their vigil on İstiklal Caddesi in Istanbul. The government ban on their assembly remained in place and in a bid to prevent violent scenes of last Saturday, police erected barriers in surrounding […]
