Presentation originally made on 27/04/10 by KHRP Legal Director, Catriona Vine, at York University's Centre for Applied Human Rights.

Response of the Kurdish Human Rights Project to the United Kingdom Foreign & Commonwealth Office Annual Report on Human Rights 2009, Released on 18 March 2010.

Presentation delivered to the Big Lottery Fund on 29 January 2009, reviewing KHRP's work from 2006-2009.

Speech Delivered by KHRP Chief Executive Kerim Yıldız at the Sixth International Conference on the EU, Turkey and the Kurds, European Parliament, Brussels, 3 February 2010

Speech Delivered by Mark Muller QC, Chairman of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales; EUTCC Board Member; & KHRP Honorary Secretary General, at the Sixth International Conference on the EU, Turkey and the Kurds, European Parliament, Brussels, 3 February 2010

Few infrastructure development projects have caused as much international controversy in recent years as the proposed Ilısu hydroelectric dam project in the Kurdish region of south-east Turkey.  If it were built, the dam would displace between 50,000-78,000 people, mainly Kurds; flood the ancient town of Hasankeyf and hundreds of other unexplored archaeological sites; severely impact the environment upstream and downstream of the dam; and significantly reduce the flow of water to the downstream states of Iraq and Syria, with the potential for exacerbating conflict in the region.   

Although funding was suspended in December 2008, after Turkey failed to implement the agreed conditions, Turkey remains adamant that it will complete the project. As this briefing paper highlights, construction work on the dam has continued intermittently and villagers in the immediate area of the dam site have had their land expropriated.  Turkey has also announced that it is approaching China’s export credit agency, Sinosur, for funding, although as at the beginning of December 2009, the Chinese Embassy in Ankara denied any Chinese company is involved in the project.

Compiling Trial Observation Reports – Based on ‘Advocacy and the Rule of Law in Turkey’

Lecture delivered by KHRP Managing Director Rachel Bernu to York University, 9 November 2009

While human rights violations are a part of everyday life for Iranians from all backgrounds, Kurds and other minorities are particularly vulnerable. With the Iranian authorities inclined to treat much minority activism – whether social, cultural or political – as linked to a separatist threat, individuals from these communities are frequently arbitrarily arrested and held incommunicado, often accused of vaguely-worded crimes relating to national security. This briefing paper gives an overview of the modern history of the Kurds in Iran, and the international and domestic legal framework in relation to the human rights situation that they and other Iranians face today. It goes on to explore patterns of human rights violations according to four key themes: discrimination on grounds of gender and ethnicity; arbitrary detention; torture and ill-treatment; and corporal and capital punishment. In the wake of the brutal crackdown that followed the disputed presidential elections in Iran in June this year, the evidence presented here underscores the need for the international community to ensure that human rights concerns are kept squarely at the forefront of diplomatic engagement with Tehran.

Speech delivered by KHRP at the  Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS on 29 April 2009.

Speech delivered by KHRP at a seminar entitled 'The Kurdish Human Rights Situation, a Lasting Peace and a Democratic Development' at the European Parliament, Brussels on 29 April 2009.

Speech delivered by the Kurdish Human Rights Project at the Alternative Water Forum, İstanbul, 21 March 2009

Protecting Politicians or Protecting Democracy? Parliamentary Immunity and Party Closure in the Run-Up to Local Elections in Turkey explores the ways in which the mechanisms available in Turkey for lifting the immunity of MPs and shutting down political parties facilitate the targeting of democratically elected politicians by unelected officials whose conception of what is best for the country is grounded in a narrow, secular and ethnically-exclusive form of nationalism.

This briefing paper is an updated version of a paper originally published by KHRP in July 2008, just prior to the final decision of the Constitutional Court on moves to shut down the ruling Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party, AKP). It features a detailed exploration of that case and ongoing parallel proceedings against the pro-Kurdish Demokratik Toplum Partisi (Democratic Society Party, DTP). It also includes analysis of the concept of parliamentary immunity and its application in different parts of the world, the historical context of the cases against the DTP and AKP, and the implications of these cases for democracy and human rights in Turkey.

The updated version of the paper covers moves against MPs and political parties that were ongoing in the months leading up to the March 2009 elections.

Speech Delivered by KHRP Executive Director Kerim Yıldız at the Fifth International Conference on the EU, Turkey and the Kurds, European Parliament, Brussels, 28-29 January 2009

Presentation used in the course of a training session on ‘Human Rights and Investment’, delivered to civil servants in Kurdistan, Iraq, on 16 December 2008.

Presentation used in the course of a training session on ‘Human Rights and Investment’, delivered to civil society representatives in Kurdistan, Iraq, on 17 December 2008.

Speech delivered by KHRP Deputy Director Rachel Bernu at the OSCE Civil Society Forum, 2-3 December 2008, Helsinki.

Response of the Kurdish Human Rights Project to the 2008 Turkey Progress Report, Published by the European Commission on 5 November 2008.

This briefing paper assesses the extent to which the situation of trade unions in Turkey has changed in recent years, in the context of the country’s bid to accede to the European Union. The evidence suggests that the Turkish state is yet to recognise the valuable role that trade unions have to play as necessary social partners within the democratic system. Several pieces of Turkish legislation remain at odds with its commitments to respect trade union rights under various international agreements. In practice, too, the Turkish authorities continue to violate the rights of employees – particularly those working in the public sector – to associate freely, to bargain collectively and to go on strike. The situation is particularly bad in the Kurdish regions of south-east Turkey, where violations of trade union rights are exacerbated by a de facto state of emergency, restrictions on expressions of Kurdish culture, and factors such as poverty, discrimination and displacement.

Speech Delivered by KHRP Deputy Director Rachel Bernu at an Event at the Houses of Parliament on 21 October 2008 entitled ‘Human Rights and the Kurds in Syria: Discrimination and Repression’

This briefing paper explores Turkish anti-terror legislation in the wake of amendments in 2006 that brought into effect a series of draconian provisions which fail to meet the country’s human rights obligations under international law and which have in practice been used to violate the human rights of it citizens. In particular, the new law fails to respect international human rights obligations by containing a definition of terrorism which is too wide and vague, by increasing the range of crimes that can count as terrorist offences, and by posing a serious threat to the freedoms of expression and association, the right to a fair trial, and the prohibition of torture. Such legislation only serves to further the deterioration seen in the human rights situation in Turkey since 2005 and should therefore be amended.