For information about working for KHRP, please see our employment page.

Executive Director

Kerim Yildiz

Kerim Yildiz is an expert in international human rights law and the Kurdish regions, and a co-founder of the Kurdish Human Rights Project.

KHRP’s work has contributed to important reforms in Turkey, including the lifting of the State of Emergency and abolition of state security courts. Yildiz received an award from the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights for his services to protect human rights and promote the rule of law in 1996, and in 2005 also received the Sigrid Rausing Trust’s Human Rights award for Leadership in Indigenous and Minority Rights.  He has extensive experience in human rights and actively works to raise awareness on human rights violations worldwide; assisting with many cases to the European Court of Human Rights, conducting legal training seminars in Europe and the Kurdish regions, and regularly contributing to seminars and conferences.  Yildiz has also written extensively on human rights including numerous essays, articles and chapters on freedom of expression, national security, torture and minority rights published in English, Turkish, Finnish and Russian. His most recent publications include ‘Turkey’s Accession to the EU: Democracy, Human Rights and the Kurds’ (Pluto Press, 2005),  ‘The Kurds in Syria: The Forgotten People’ (Pluto Press, 2005), 'The Kurds in Iraq: Past, Present and Future - Revised Edition' (Pluto Press, 2007), 'The Kurds in Iran: Past Present and Future' (Pluto Press, 2007, with Tanyel Taysi) and 'An Ongoing Practice: Torture in Turkey' (KHRP, 2007, with Frederick Piggott).  He is also a Board member of other human rights and environmental organisations, serving as the Board Chair of the Gateway trust, advisor to the Delfina Foundation and  member of Kurdish Pen.

Deputy Director

Rachel Bernu

Rachel Bernu, KHRP’s Deputy Director is an established human rights advocate, having worked in Senegal, Israel/ Palestine, French Guiana, Washington and Paris, while studying International Relations and International Law.  Formerly Co-Director of Development at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies, her expertise lies in institution building, development, and broad-based human rights campaigns.

Legal Officer 

Catriona Vine

Catriona joined the KHRP as legal officer in summer 2007, having previously been a member of the KHRP Legal Team. In this role she carried out numerous fact-finding missions and ECHR trainings for KHRP in Turkey throughout 2005. She has been a barrister practising in both domestic and international crime, public law and human rights, and has prepared numerous international human rights applications both to the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of First Instance. 

Turkey and Iraq Desk Officer

Mustafa Gündoğdu

Mustafa Gündoğdu is a Sociology graduate from Turkey with a Masters in International Relations from the London School of Economics.  From 1996 to 2000 he worked as an Administrator and Project Coordinator at the Foundation for Legal and Social Studies (TOHAV) for the victims of human rights violations, with particular focus on the medical rehabilitation of victims of torture. Mustafa has also worked for number of research projects on the Kurds, internally displaced persons in Turkey and trans-national migrant communities conducted by researchers and universities in Turkey and the UK.  He is also a founding member of the London Kurdish Film Festival Organising Committee and assists Glasgow international Human Rights Film festival with its film programme concerning Kurds and human rights violations in Turkey. Since 2003, he has also been a member of Council of Europe Democratic Leadership Programme. He has been with KHRP since 2000.

Development Officer

Pranjali Acharya

Pranjali graduated in marketing from Lancaster University, and spent 2 and a half years working in corporate marketing in the City.  She made the transition to the not-for-profit sector after completing a Masters in International Relations at Warwick University, where she focused on international security, human rights, globalisation and development. Her thesis examined the gendered nature of the Israel-Palestine conflict.  After a period working in local government, she joined KHRP in July 2004.

Resources and Communications Co-ordinator

Walter Jayawardene

Walter is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin with a degree in European Studies specialising in Italian, French and modern history. After working for several years in Dublin  in Irish Government buildings, he moved to the UK in 2005 to pursue an MA in Near and Middle-Eastern Studies at SOAS which he completed in September 2006. His MA thesis examined the position of Iraq’s Jewish community during the rise of Zionism and Arab Nationalism in the 1940s. After a period working in the education sector, he joined KHRP in November 2006.

Development and Outreach Officer

Anna Irvin

Anna is an English Language and Literature graduate from King’s College London. Upon leaving university, Anna became a senior event planner, organising events for the NSPCC and Forum for the Future among others. She worked in community theatre projects before joining KHRP in June 2005.

Assistant to the Executive Director

Charlotte Alfred

Charlotte graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in Islamic Studies and Philosophy, where she was involved in student journalism and human rights campaigning. Having worked in the not-for-profit sector in the UK and abroad she joined KHRP in September 2007.

Kenneth Appiah-Kyeremeh

Kenneth graduated with a Bsc in Physics from the University of Science and Technology, Ghana.  He later studied at the Financial Training College (London) where he graduated and became an affiliate of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). Before joining KHRP in October 2007 he worked with a homeless theatre company in London as a finance manager.

INTERNS, VOLUNTEERS and FELLOWS

As a small organisation, we could not function without the help of our interns, volunteers, and fellows. Their work is essential and invaluable. All interns, volunteers and contractors are listed in full in the annual Impact Report.

LEGAL TEAM

We are also massively indebted to our legal team, who form an integral part of KHRP’s workforce. They provide us with expert legal advice, undertake fact finding missions and trial observations, while undertaking all our litigation and advocacy work on a pro-bono basis. KHRP could not operate without their work and expertise.

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