Taner Kılıç is a lawyer, a human rights defender, and the honorary president of Amnesty International Turkey. As a prominent figure in the human rights movement in Turkey, he works on refugee rights and is one of the first legal experts who has drawn attention to the conditions of refugees in Turkey. Kılıç is also a founder and the former chair of the Association for Solidarity with Refugees (Mülteci-Der).
Gençay Gürsoy (1939) graduated from Istanbul University’s Medical Faculty, with a specialization in neurology, in 1963. He worked in the same faculty as a specialist, associate professor and professor. He led the establishment of a fully equipped neuroradiology laboratory in the same school in 1980. He also studied and conducted research on neurology abroad for 4,5 years. Following the 12 September 1980 coup d’état, he was expelled from his position and was not able to work at any public institution from 1983 onwards.
Mücella Yapıcı is a member of the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB) and is one of the executives of the İstanbul Büyükkent branch of the Chamber of Architects. She is also a representative of the Taksim Solidarity Platform, which was established in 2012 in the legal battle against projects that threaten the Taksim Square and the Taksim Gezi Park. Yapıcı is one of the defendants in the Gezi Park case where 16 rights defenders stand trial and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Businessperson Osman Kavala is a civil society leader in Turkey. He stepped into the world of business in 1982. He has pioneered efforts to promote democracy, human rights, and multiculturalism in Turkey through his companies and civil society organizations. Following the solidarity actions he initiated after the 1999 Istanbul Earthquake, he dedicated himself to work in the field of civil society.
Writer-journalist Nadire Mater plays a prominent part in the struggle for rights and press freedom in Turkey. Mater serves as the Chair of the Board of the Interpress Service (IPS) Communication Foundation, which supports rights-based journalism practices, is the project advisor of the Independent Communication Network (BIA), which fights for independent media, and continues to work for the online media platform bianet.org.
Lawyer Eren Keskin is the Co-Chair of the Human Rights Association, founder of the “Legal Assistance Office Against Sexual Harassment and Rape in Detention,” and an honorary member of the Paris Bar Council. She has received numerous international awards for her peace and human rights efforts and was the recipient of the 2019 Martin Ennals Award in May.
Raci Bilici worked as the president at the IHD (Human Rights Association) Diyarbakır branch between 2012 and 2018. From 2016 he was also Vice President to the IHD headquarters. Bilici is especially known for reporting and documenting human rights violations in Diyarbakır.
Forensic physician Şebnem Korur Fincancı, who has spent years struggling for human rights, is the Chair of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV). She is one of the founders of the foundation and the Turkish Penal Code Association. Fincancı was also elected as the Central Council President at the 72nd Elected Grand Congress of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) held on September 27, 2020.
Yiğit Aksakoğlu is a civil society professional working on matters related to children’s rights. He worked at TESEV (Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation) and Istanbul Bilgi University's NGO Research & Education Division. Since 2011, he has been a consultant, among others for the Turkish representative of the Dutch Bernard van Leer Foundation for early childhood development.
On 27 November 2018, in a wave of detentions and imprisonments of civil society leaders and human rights defenders, Gönül Öztürkoğlu was taken into police custody in Malatya. She was officially arrested on 30 November and charged with "membership of a terrorist organisation" and “making propaganda for a terrorist organisation”.