Kurdish Human Rights Project has been awarded a grant of £342,795 by the Big Lottery Fund.[1]  The project funded will support survivors of human rights abuse including torture, internal displacement and censorship in Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The 3-year project aims to ensure that victims of past or current human rights violations get legal redress, and to ultimately reduce the number of people falling victim to human rights abuse in future.  The money will pay for advocacy and casework, including expenses related to bringing cases to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and for legal work and cases by partners in country.  It will also be spent on running training programmes for local groups, production of various publications, and fact-finding and trial observations missions into, for example, the level of freedom of expression on the ground.  Finally the grant will also fund public awareness raising and communications, including a newsletter and website.

“If he does not talk, shoot him and bring him over here to the other bodies”

At a recent meeting in Turkey to investigate the shootings of a 12-year-old boy and his father by four police officers, a witness told us how the police had intimidated and ill-treated him.  This project will ensure that perpetrators of human rights violations are brought to justice.  We investigate allegations, gather evidence and submit it before international human rights courts.  This project will secure justice and redress for hundreds of victims of human rights abuse including disappearances, extrajudicial killings and torture.

KHRP's executive director, Kerim Yildiz, said, “When a child is ill-treated or a newspaper is closed down, we believe the entire culture suffers.  This project will challenge the impunity of human rights abusers and foster a human rights culture in the Kurdish regions.”

Contact

Rochelle Harris, Kurdish Human Rights Project, London ,

Tel: +44 (0)207 7405 3835 

email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it    www.khrp.org

[1]   Big Lottery Fund is the joint operating name of the New Opportunities Fund and the National Lotteries Charities Board (which made grants under the name of the Community Fund)

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