Skip to content

KHRP | Kurdish Human Rights Project

narrow screen resolution wide screen resolution Increase font size Decrease font size Default font size default color brown color green color red color blue color

Kurdish Human Rights Project: This is the legacy website of the Kurdish Human Rights Project, containing reports and news pertaining to human rights issues in the Kurdish Regions for 20 years.

You are here: 
Skip to content

Charity Awards

Charity Awards

Gruber Prize

Gruber

Gruber Justice Prize

2007 News
Turkish forces acquitted in killing of father & son

 

KHRP learned from the family of Ahmet & Uğur Kaymaz that the four members of the Turkish security forces involved in their killing have been acquitted of charges of excessive force. The verdict was reached at Eskişehir Heavy Penal Court yesterday afternoon.

The killings, which prompted national and international attention, took place in November 2004 in Kızıltepe, south-east Turkey. Ahmat and Uğur Kaymaz were fired upon by undercover police a few metres from their home, just before having their evening meal with their family. Post mortem results revealed the ferocity of the attack on the father and son: 12 year-old Uğur received thirteen bullet wounds to his body and hands. His father Ahmet was shot four times. Claims by the security forces that the victims were armed were denied by all witnesses at the scene, and complaints made by the Kaymaz family prompted the indictment of the perpetrators on charges of excessive force.

 

Read more...
 
On World Water Day 2007 Concerns over Ilisu Dam Project are More Pressing than Ever

 

On today, World Water Day, KHRP would like to draw renewed attention to the ongoing risk to the residents of south-east Turkey, Iraq, Syria – and indeed the region as a whole-- posed by the Southeast Anatolia Dam Project (GAP), in particular the proposed Ilisu and Cizre dams.

The dams, which are to be built on the river Tigris around 65 kilometres north of the Syrian border pending German, Swiss and Austrian funding, would not only result in the displacement and dispossession of over 50, 000 mainly Kurdish inhabitants of the region. It would also destroy countless sites of enormous historical, cultural and archaeological importance, including the ancient town of Hasankeyf which bears the marks of 9,000 years of Sumerian, Greek, Roman, Kurdish and Arab civilisation. The disregard shown by the project for the cultural heritage of the people of south-east Anatolia reflects the wider policy of restricting cultural, linguistic and political life in the region.

 

Read more...
 
Turkey Pummels Freedom of Expression, Again

 

It has come to the attention of KHRP that the Turkish Ministry of the Interior has called on the State Council for the dissolution of the Sur Municipality in Diyarbakir and the dismissal of its mayor Abdullah Demirbas.

This follows a decision by the Municipal authorities in October 2006 to provide its citizens with multilingual municipal services, in order to properly address the multi-ethnic and multi-lingual makeup of the municipality. A 2006 survey on the linguistic composition of the municipality put the proportion of those speaking Turkish at 24%, Kurdish at 72%, Arabic at 1% and Syriac and Armenian dialects at 3%. In reaction to these findings a report by the municipality's Commission on Education, Culture, Sports and Tourism decided that there was a ‘need for a more participatory understanding of municipal service provision… in order to provide healthier and better municipal services for the local people and to render educational, cultural and artistic activities locally more accessible'. The council therefore approved the future provision of multilingual services.

 

Read more...
 
KHRP Publishes Briefing Paper on Women’s Rights in the Kurdish Regions

 

On today, International Women's Day, KHRP would like to draw attention to the continuing struggle for women's rights in the Kurdish regions.

As in many parts of the world, women in the Kurdish regions face severe gender-based discrimination on a daily basis. This is compounded in the Kurdish context by mass displacement, conflict, ethnic discrimination and patriarchal social structures, which expose women to discrimination and violence on two fronts, by both state and non-state actors, across the public and private spheres.

 

Read more...
 
KHRP Calls for International and Local support for Kurdish Women’s Rights Activist Houzan Mahmoud

 

KHRP wishes to express its support for Houzan Mahmoud of the Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq following a recent death threat issued against her by an Islamist group.

Houzan Mahmoud and OWFI are outspoken advocates of women’s rights and secularism in Iraq. They have been critical of the disturbing growth of fundamentalist interpretations of Islam and sectarianism in recent years and its detrimental effect on women’s rights.

Most recently Houzan Mahmoud was campaigning against article 7 of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s constitution, which provides for Shar’ia to be used as a source for legislation. On 26 February she received a death threat by email stating “we will kill you either in Iraq or in London by the middle of March, because you are campaigning against Islam”. The threat was signed Ansar al Islam, a Sunni jihadi group from Iraqi Kurdistan.

 

Read more...
 
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>

Page 9 of 11