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KHRP Gives Training on Women’s Rights and International Mechanisms |
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KHRP Legal and Research Interns Marina Themistocleous and Amy Pepper visited Leicester on 17 January 2008 to participate in a training seminar entitled Global Issues-Local Voices: How Women’s Organisations Use International Instruments. The session was organised by the Fatima Women’s Network, and hosted by Zarin Hainsworth from Serene Communications.  Ms Themistocleous addressing the seminar
The workshops consisted of information and skills based groups, including a talk about International Conventions ands Agencies given by Zarin Hainsworth, a session on UN Special Rapporteurs, taken by Shila Behjat from the Baha’i Office for the Advancement of Women UK, and also a session on How to Link International Law with UK Law and Policy – Lobbying Sills, given by Dan Wheatley from the Baha’i Office for External Affairs. Ms Themistocleous and Ms Pepper held one of the four workshops on How to Use International Mechanisms. This consisted of a talk on how KHRP as an organisation has utilised international instruments, and an interactive session, where the participants undertook writing letters to a UN Special Rapporteur with regard to a factual scenario. The workshops were well received by those who attended, which included representatives from Faith in People with HIV, the Race Equality Centre and the Women’s National Commission. |
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KHRP Conducts Fact-finding Mission in Border Regions |
 Kerim Yildiz and Johanna Nykanen in Sersenk district, Kurdistan, Iraq. Note farmland in background, scorched by Turkish bombardment. At the end of November, KHRP sent a fact-finding mission to Kurdistan, Iraq to conduct research on the recent human rights developments in the region and to follow up on the findings from the KHRP mission carried out in January 2007. The mission consisted of KHRP’s Executive Director Kerim Yildiz, Legal Officer Catriona Vine, Research Intern Johanna Nykänen, and Tanyel Taysi, who is currently lecturing at the University of Kurdistan-Hewler. During the 6-day trip, of which one day was committed to NGO training in Sulemanya, the mission delegates travelled extensively around the Kurdistan region meeting with a large number of organizations and individuals. Among them were representatives of the two ruling parties, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), intellectuals, lawyers and human rights activists. The mission also met with villagers of the Sersenk district in the border regions who have suffered bombardment by both Turkey and Iran during the past months’ tensions. KHRP is extremely concerned about Turkey and Iran’s increasingly aggressive troop build-up on the frontier with Kurdistan, Iraq, particularly following October’s motion in the Turkish parliament authorising cross-border operations. The recent bombardments on civilian-inhabited areas have caused serious disruption for local people, including destruction of property, livestock, arable land and woodland. The psychological effects of such bombardments, particularly on children, are enduring and extremely worrying. |
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KHRP appears in Grand Chamber case of Chiragov and others v Armenia |
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KHRP is to appear before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on 15 September 2010 at 09:15 am (local time) in the case of Chiragov and others v Armenia. The case concerns the flight of the six applicants and their families, who are Azeri Kurds, from their villages in the Azerbaijan region of Lachin when it came under attack by Armenia in 1992. Since that time the Applicants have been unable to return to their homes and property and the area remains the subject of an international dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The capture of Lachin created approximately 30,000 Azeri displaced persons, many of whom have suffered severe psychological distress not only from the circumstances of their displacement but also from the loss of their livelihoods and the poor living conditions they and their families have had to cope with for more than 18 years in Baku and elsewhere.
The applicants claim to have been deprived of their right to peaceful enjoyment of their possessions as guaranteed by Article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention of Human Rights (‘ECHR’, 'the Convention'). They further claim that their right to respect for private and family life under Article 8 of the Convention, as well as right the right to an effective remedy under Article 13 of the Convention, have been violated and finally that they were subjected to discrimination in their treatment by virtue of ethnic and religious affiliation as prohibited by Article 14 of the ECHR.
'This hearing will be of immense importance for the thousands of displaced Azeri as well as for all displaced people across Europe who have been forced to flee their homes because of state-orchestrated military campaigns. Its outcome will have consequences for the many existing vulnerable minority communities who happen to live on certain ethnic or political fault lines in Europe' said Kerim Yildiz, Chief Executive of the Kurdish Human Rights Project.
Follow the hearing via webcast. |
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KHRP Supporter Jack Newberry to go Three Rounds in Aid of KHRP |
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Next February 2011, KHRP supporter Jack Newberry will bravely step into a boxing ring in Singapore to raise vital funds for the Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP). He will fight an opponent for three rounds; each round lasting two minutes.
This is the first and possibly the last time that he will enter a competition like this. Although he is accustomed to high pressure situations both professionally and physically, he assures us that there is nothing he has quite experienced like the dynamics of a boxing ring, where there is nowhere to hide.
Every penny of the money raised will be used to help to empower and give a voice to the millions of Kurds and non-Kurds in the Kurdish regions of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and the Caucasus, whose daily lives are touched by discrimination and oppression. Commenting ahead of next year’s fundraiser, Jack said, ‘although the event will be exhilarating, I am certain there are less painful ways of raising funds. However, I want all my supporters to know that the money was truly earned and hopefully I will have a video for everyone to watch capturing each moment punch by punch!’.
If you’d like to support Jack or just learn a bit more about his daring feat, please visit Jack’s JustGiving page today.
‘Jack’s boxing event in is certainly one of the more unusual fundraising ideas put to KHRP! However, we take our hats off to him for his willingness to quite literally take it on the chin for KHRP. We hope that Jack safely goes the three round distance and wish him all the best’, said KHRP’s Managing Director, Rachel Bernu.
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