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Cancellation of KHRP Events on Rule of Law, Freedom of Expression and Human Rights Defenders |
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Monday, 19 April 2010 17:08 |
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KHRP is disappointed to announce the cancellation of this week’s series of events on the Rule of Law, Freedom of Expression and Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) in Turkey due to ongoing disruptions to European travel.
From today through to Thursday 22 April 2010, KHRP was due to host a series of events around the visit of Rehşan Bataray Saman, a board member of İnsan Hakları Derneği (the Human Rights Association of Turkey, İHD) Diyarbakır Branch, the oldest national human rights NGO in Turkey and a longstanding KHRP partner organisation. Unfortunately due to the unforeseen closure of UK airspace and the ongoing cancellation of flights resulting from the Icelandic cloud of volcanic ash across Europe, Ms Saman is now unable to travel to the UK to take part in the events.
Ms Saman was due to visit the UK on behalf of Mr Muharrem Erbey, Chairman of İHD’s Diyarbakır Branch. Mr Erbey — who is currently being held in Diyarbakır D-Type prison awaiting trial — was one of more than 80 people detained as part of an anti-terror operation launched simultaneously in 11 provinces of Turkey in the early hours of Christmas Eve 2009.
He is just one of many lawyers, journalists, politicians and writers whom KHRP believes have been detained and criminalised by the authorities for their work on human rights and minority issues in Turkey, which KHRP sought to examine and stimulate discussion on during the events.
List of cancelled KHRP events:
• KHRP Drinks Reception, Monday 19 April
• Panel Discussion on Freedom of Expression & the Media,
hosted in conjunction with Article 19, Index on Censorship, English PEN, and the Free Word Centre, Tuesday 20 April
• Seminar on Rule of Law in Turkey, hosted in conjunction with 25 Bedford Row Chambers, Wednesday 21 April
• Seminar on Human Rights Defenders in Turkey, hosted in conjunction with Tooks Chambers, the Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales (BHRC) & the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, Thursday 22 April
KHRP will send out updates about future events in due course. Please also check the KHRP website for the latest information. |
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Next Week's KHRP Events on Rule of Law, Freedom of Expression and Human Rights Defenders |
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Saturday, 17 April 2010 22:19 |
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From Monday 19 through to Thursday 22 April 2010, KHRP will host a series of events on the topic of Rule of Law, Freedom of Expression and Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) in Turkey. The events are being organised around the visit of Rehşan Bataray Saman, a board member of İnsan Hakları Derneği (the Human Rights Association of Turkey, İHD) Diyarbakır Branch, a longstanding partner organisation of the KHRP.
Despite the Turkish government’s launch of a ‘democratic initiative’ designed to solve the Kurdish conflict through peaceful dialogue, Turkey has fallen backwards into a state of uncertainty and unrest that has not been seen for many years.
Ms Saman will be here on behalf of Mr Muharrem Chairman of İHD’s Diyarbakır Branch, who is currently being held in Diyarbakır D-Type prison awaiting trial. Mr Muharrem was one of more than 80 people detained as part of an anti-terror operation launched simultaneously in 11 provinces of Turkey in the early hours of Christmas Eve 2009. The stated reason for Mr Erbey’s detention was his alleged membership of a terrorist organisation. Evidence of such membership is scant and is based on speeches Mr Erbey made in the Europe about the human rights situation for Kurds in Turkey, as well as because of his work as a lawyer. Case files of İHD’s work before the European Court of Human Rights were confiscated, and raids on İHD offices continued into the spring. İHD is the oldest national human rights NGO in Turkey.
Please come and join us next week for what promises to be a succession of interesting and though-provoking debates.
KHRP’s April 2010 Event’s Summary:
- KHRP Drinks Reception, Monday 19 April
- Panel Discussion on Freedom of Expression & the Media, hosted in conjunction with Article 19, Index on Censorship, English PEN, and the Free Word Centre, Tuesday 20 April
- Seminar on Rule of Law in Turkey, hosted in conjunction with 25 Bedford Row Chambers, Wednesday 21 April
- Seminar on Human Rights Defenders in Turkey, hosted in conjunction with Tooks Chambers, the Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales (BHRC) & the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, Thursday 22 April
The above events will feature among others, Rehşan Saman, İHD board member and HRD, John Kampfner, Director of Index on Censorship, and Maureen Freely, Journalist, Novelist and Academic, as well UK exiles Koray Düzgören, former KHRP applicant and renowned Turkish journalist and broadcaster, and Doğan Genç, prominent Kurdish HRD and former İHD Executive.
KHRP’s full programme of events is available to download here. Further information will be made available from the KHRP website.
‘Since last Christmas, we have witnessed violent clashes between civilians and security forces and the increasing use of anti-terror legislation to criminalise pro-Kurdish human rights advocates, including, lawyers, journalists, politicians and writers, as well as children, in violation of numerous principles of international human rights law’, said KHRP Chief Executive Kerim Yildiz. ‘KHRP remains gravely concerned about the developing human rights situation and next week’s programme seeks to raise awareness and to help examine and foster discussion around the dramatic increase in the arrest and detention of HRDs — particularly Kurds — working on minority issues and anti-terror cases in Turkey.’ |
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KHRP Gravely Concerned about Imminent Execution of Kurdish Political Prisoner in Iran |
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Saturday, 17 April 2010 22:18 |
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KHRP is gravely concerned to hear reports of todays expected execution of Mr Hossein Khezri, a 28-year old Kurdish political activist, who was condemned to death after having been accused of being a ‘mohareb’ (‘enemy of God’) and having been charged with ‘endangering state security.’
Following his arrest in the city of Kermanshah in July 2008, Mr Khezri— it is believed on the basis of a suspect trial — was sentenced to death the following July, for membership of the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK). According to reports, Khezri has partially lost his eyesight after being extensively tortured by Iranian authorities during his detention and now faces imminent execution by hanging.
On the morning of Sunday 11 April 2010, all of Khezri’s personal belongings were confiscated as he was reportedly transferred from Urmiye Prison to an unknown location by Iranian security forces. Such incommunicado transfers of prisoners sentenced to death in Iran, are a common indication that an individual’s execution is imminent.
Mr Khezri is one of 20 Kurdish political prisoners currently awaiting execution in Iran, with at least three of these other individuals (Zeyneb Jalalyian, Sherko Moarefi and Habibollah Latifi) also at risk of imminent execution. KHRP is opposed to the use of the death penalty in all circumstances and believes that such politically-motivated executions represent grave cause for concern. Whilst the UN General Assembly voted in favour of a moratorium on the death penalty in 2007 and again in 2008, its resolutions are not legally binding, and Iran has yet to sign or ratify such international mechanisms as the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
‘As well as facing arbitrary arrest and the worst forms of torture and ill-treatment in detention, human rights activists – particularly those of Kurdish origin – are at risk of being sentenced to death on dubious grounds and in questionable trials’, said KHRP Chief Executive Kerim Yildiz. ‘KHRP calls on the international community to join us in urging the Iranian authorities to immediately commute the death sentences of Khezri and the 19 others at risk of imminent execution, to safeguard all prisoners from harm and to ensure that perpetrators of human rights abuses are brought to account. We urgently appeal to Iran to abide by international human rights standards, in particular those embodied in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)’. |
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KHRP Submits NGO Shadow Report on Syria for the UN CAT |
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Friday, 09 April 2010 00:00 |
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KHRP today submitted its NGO shadow report for the review of the Syrian Arab republic under the UN Convention against Torture (CAT).
The report compiled focuses upon cases of mistreatment of Kurdish people in Syria which undermine the submissions made in the official report submitted by the Syrian Arab Republic in July 2009. Many Syrian Kurds are stateless peoples who continue to be targeted by the Syrian authorities and subjected to ill-treatment, characteristically in the form of arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention, extrajudicial killings, disappearances, as well as torture and deaths in custody.
In respect of Syria’s implementation of the Convention against Torture, KHRP advances three principal submissions: (1) Syrian law must criminalise the offence of torture; (2) Syria must properly enforce legislation aimed at preventing and punishing acts of torture; and (3) Syria must properly investigate allegations of torture against Syrian Kurds and, where torture is established to have occurred, provide appropriate redress.
‘KHRP remains gravely concerned about the risk of torture to Kurds in Syrian prisons’, said KHRP Chief Executive Kerim Yildiz. ‘Our shadow report is an important tool by which to challenge the Syrian Arab Republic’s official line concerning its record of torture and to call on the international community to bring pressure to bear on Syria to implement measures to safeguard the humane treatment of prisoners and to eradicate torture from its penal system’.
KHRP’s submission to the UN CAT on Syria is available to download here. |
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