A Turkish court on April 24 delivered a verdict of acquittal for İzmir Bar Association's chair and ten board members from the 2018-2021 term in the highly publicized case concerning their reaction to Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) President Ali Erbaş's comments targeting the LGBTI+ community and diverse lifestyles in Turkey.
Thirty-three bar associations in Turkey have issued a joint statement calling for the removal of restrictions on access to legal counsel and for the release of the lawyers who were recently detained as part of a wider investigation targeting Kurdish-linked groups.
Police prevented human rights defenders in Istanbul from holding their annual commemoration of the Armenian Genocide on April 24.
The event, which had taken place in the Sultanahmet quarter in İstanbul's historical peninsula since 2005, was once again banned this year.
As a result, the Human Rights Association (İHD) attempted to hold the event on the street outside their office in Beyoğlu. However, the police also denied this request.
Lawyer Jiyan Tosun is a rights defender and a relative of an enforced disappearance victim. She was only 10 years old when she joined the Cumartesi İnsanları movement (Saturday Mothers / People). She has been working at the Legal Aid Bureau against Sexual Harassment and Rape in Custody under the Human Rights Association (İHD) for 17 years. In 2008, she was taken into custody during the banned 700th-week meeting of the Saturday People and was sued along with 46 others.
Marmaris City Council Chairman Ufuk Beytekin has been involved in the union movement throughout his career. He served as the chairman of the Media Communication and Postal Employees Union (Haber-Sen) which is affiliated with the Confederation of Public Employees Trade Unions (KESK). He continued rights defending at the Marmaris City Council in the following years. Beytekin has been sued for “unfair competition” due to his statements about the construction project of a hotel and time-share by Sinpaş GYO in İçmeler, Marmaris.
Turkish police temporarily detained 15 members of Saturday Mothers, including Human Rights Association (İHD) chair Eren Keskin, in Istanbul’s Galatasaray Square on April 8.
Later, Saturday Mothers announced on their social media accounts that the detainees were released.
The families of women murdered by men demonstrated Wednesday in defence of a prominent Turkish anti-femicide campaign group accused of activity against law and morals.
Prosecutors had filed a lawsuit in April against We Will Stop Femicide Platform, one of the country's leading feminist organisations. If convicted, it could be shut down.
A Turkish court has cancelled a disciplinary penalty against academic and documentary filmmaker Can Candan that was imposed by Istanbul’s Boğaziçi University. The penalty in question was one of the reasons the university management had cited in a decision to dismiss Candan from his position.
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Turkey.