Founded | November 2017 |
---|---|
Type | Non-profit INGO |
Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
Fields | Press freedom, Refugee Advocacy campaigns, research, advocacy, web TV |
Key people | Valerie Peay (Director) |
Website | observatoryihr.org |
The International Observatory of Human Rights (also known as IOHR) is a London-based non-governmental organization focused on exposing human rights violations. [1] It runs a TV channel dedicated to human rights campaigns, the first of its kind, via the netgem.tv interactive platform. [2]
Established in November 2017, IOHR has focused on a number of themes relating to prisoners of conscience, arbitrary detentions, the refugee crisis, the challenges of extremism and radicalism, social injustice, and violations of international law. It has also been active on the subject of media freedoms and minority rights. [3] [4] [5] It is a nonprofit organization based in the United Kingdom. [6]
The IOHR was founded by Valerie Peay, who also serves as its director. [7] Peay is also a Trustee Director of the Royal Caledonian Educational Trust in Scotland. [8]
IOHR launched the #BeARefugeeSponsor campaign to call for the expansion of the UK Community Sponsorship of the Syrian Refugees scheme. [9] In August 2018, IOHR held a third event in its #BeARefugeeSponsor series with the aunt of Alan Kurdi, highlighting the benefits of Community Sponsorship and the Canadian experience. [10] Matthew Ryder, London's Deputy Mayor for Social Integration, Social Mobility and Community Engagement lent his support to their appeal. [11]
IOHR launched the "Not Born A Radical" campaign to address causes of radicalisation and provide progressive platform for educating and empowering the youth, and engaging returning fighters, prisoners and family members. [12] [13] [14] It has hosted events at King's College London [15] and the University of Rostock. [16]
IOHR has sought to highlight the case of a growing number of dual citizens who have been incarcerated on return visits to their native Iran.[ citation needed ] In June 2018 IOHR partnered with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in inviting Mrs. Vida Mehrannia, the wife of imprisoned Iranian-Swedish professor Dr Ahmad Reza Jalali, to Brussels and Strasbourg to appeal for an urgent intervention from diplomats and members of the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe the week before President Hassan Rouhani's visit to Europe. [17] [18] [19]
IOHR launched IOHR TV, a video content channel, in January 2019 to optimise its campaigning activities. [20] [2] It also broadcasts stories on the IOHR website. The format of video material often comprises one-on-one interviews with guests to discuss topical issues. Output also includes content from IOHR events.
Şemdinli is a town located in the Şemdinli District of Hakkari Province in Turkey and had a population of 18,220 in 2023. The current mayor is Tahir Saklı from the Justice and Development Party (AKP), elected in 2019.
Mehmet Mehdi Eker is a Turkish politician who served as the Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock of Turkey from 2005 until 2015. He was elected a Member of Parliament for the electoral district of Diyarbakır for Democratic People's Party in 2002. He was re-elected in 2007 and 2011 for the Justice and Development Party (AKP). He was again elected as an MP in 2018.
The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) is a non-profit, non-governmental think tank based in the Department of War Studies at King's College London whose mission is to educate the public and help policymakers and practitioners find solutions to radicalisation and political violence. It obtains some of its funding through the European Union.
Refugees of the Syrian civil war are citizens and permanent residents of Syria who have fled the country throughout the Syrian civil war. The pre-war population of the Syrian Arab Republic was estimated at 22 million (2017), including permanent residents. Of that number, the United Nations (UN) identified 13.5 million (2016) as displaced persons, requiring humanitarian assistance. Of these, since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011 more than six million (2016) were internally displaced, and around five million (2016) had crossed into other countries, seeking asylum or placed in Syrian refugee camps worldwide. It is often described as one of the largest refugee crises in history.
Sezgin Tanrıkulu is a Turkish human rights lawyer known for his defense of the rights of Kurdish citizens. He is currently serving as an MP in the Turkish Grand Assembly with the Republican People's Party (CHP).
Şafak Pavey is a Turkish diplomat, columnist and politician. She was a member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) representing Istanbul Province. She is the first disabled woman ever elected to the Turkish parliament, and is a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In 1996, before she turned 20, her left arm and left leg were amputated after a train accident in Switzerland.
Foreign fighters have fought on all four sides of the Syrian Civil War, as well both sides of the War in Iraq. In addition to Sunni foreign fighters, Shia fighters from several countries have joined pro-government militias in Syria, leftist militants have joined Kurdish forces, and other foreign fighters have joined jihadist organizations and private military contractors recruit globally. Estimates of the total number of foreign Sunnis who have fought for the Syrian rebels over the course of the conflict range from 5,000 to over 10,000, while foreign Shia fighters numbered around 10,000 or less in 2013 rising to between 15,000 and 25,000 in 2017.
Turkey's involvement in the Syrian civil war began diplomatically and later escalated militarily. Initially, Turkey condemned the Syrian government at the outbreak of civil unrest in Syria during the spring of 2011; the Turkish government's involvement gradually evolved into military assistance for the Free Syrian Army in July 2011, border clashes in 2012, and direct military interventions in 2016–17, in 2018, in 2019, 2020, and in 2022. The military operations have resulted in the Turkish occupation of northern Syria since August 2016.
Alan Kurdi, initially reported as Aylan Kurdi, was a two-year-old Syrian boy of Kurdish ethnic background whose image made global headlines after he drowned on 2 September 2015 in the Mediterranean Sea along with his mother and brother. Alan and his family were Syrian refugees trying to reach Europe from Turkey amid the European refugee crisis. Photographs of his body were taken by Turkish journalist Nilüfer Demir and quickly went viral, prompting international responses. Since the Kurdi family had reportedly been trying to reach Canada, his death and the wider refugee crisis became an issue in the 2015 Canadian federal election.
The Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria is the Syrian branch of the Turkistan Islamic Party, an armed Uyghur Jihadist group with a presence in the Syrian Civil War. While the TIP has been active in Syria, the organization's core leadership is based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with a presence in its home territory of China.
Dawronoye is a secular, leftist, national liberation movement among the Assyrian people. Ideologically characterized by progressive ideas and including socialist elements, its founding roots can be traced to the late 1980s in the town of Midyat in Turkey. The modern manifestation of the movement is controversial among Assyrian organizations worldwide, particularly due to its ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD).
Secunder Kermani is a British journalist who is Foreign Correspondent for Channel 4 News. Kermani is a former BBC correspondent in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He was previously a reporter on the BBC's flagship current affairs programme Newsnight.
The 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria, code-named Operation Peace Spring by Turkey, was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and the Syrian National Army (SNA) against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and later Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in northern Syria.
The Uyghurs in Turkey are members of the Uyghur diaspora that live in Turkey.
Ayhan Bilgen is a journalist, politician and former mayor of Kars from the Peoples' Democratic Party.
Bedia Özgökçe Ertan is a lawyer and a politician from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), a former member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly and Mayor of Van.
Tuncer Bakırhan is a politician of Kurdish descent and current co-leader of the Kurdish minority interests party DEM Party. He is a former chairman of the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) and the former Mayor of Siirt. He was dismissed from his duties as mayor by the Turkish ministry of the interior, arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Foreign fighters in the Syrian civil war have come to Syria and joined all four sides in the war. In addition to Sunni foreign fighters arriving to defend the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or join the Syrian rebels, Shia fighters from several countries have joined pro-government militias in Syria, and leftists have become foreign fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Tima Kurdi is a Syrian-Canadian author and human rights activist. Born in Damascus, she moved to Canada as a young adult and is based in Coquitlam, British Columbia. Kurdi is the author of The Boy on the Beach, which documents the circumstances that led to the death of her nephews Ghalib and Alan Kurdi, and their mother, Rehanna as they fled the Syrian civil war.
Mahmut Toğrul is a chemist and politician of the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP). He is a member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey between 2015-2023, representing Gaziantep for the HDP. He is also one of the founders of the Mesopotamia Foundation, which envisions establishing a university where one could be taught in their native language.
{{cite web}}
: |last=
has generic name (help)