Lawyer Bahadır Aziz Sakin- Assistant Secretary General of MAZLUMDER, Faruk Işık- Deputy Governor and the Director of the Human Rights Committee in Ankara, Günal Kuşun from Human Rights Agenda Association, Lawyer Öztürk Türkdoğan- the General President of the Human Rights Association, Selahattin Üneş- the General President of the Human Rights Research Association, Ümit Fırat- the Board Member of Helsinki Citizens Assembly, Dr. Vahap Coşkun- Lecturer at the Department of Law at Dicle University, Fatih Aydın- Specialist at Human Rights Presidency, Ahmet Uzak- Research Fellow at Human Rights Presidency, Dilek Kumcu- the Vice-President of the Amnesty International, Ömer Atalar- Specialist at Prime Ministry, Nesrin Semiz from Capital City Women’s Platform, Feray Salman- the Coordinator of Human Rights Joint Platform, and SDE Specialist Dr. Murat Yılmaz participated in the workshop.
In the first part of the workshop, the topic was “The Current Problems of the Human Rights Movement”. In this part, legislation and practice originated problems of the representatives of the NGOs, which are the advocates of human rights, and of associations carrying out their activities in order to protect human rights, were dealt with. They talked about “Anti-Terror Act”, “Justice System for Children”, “Public Accountability”, “Refugee Problem”, “Education on Human Rights”, “Conditions in Prisons”, “Freedom of Expression”, and “Discrimination” and focused on the need for democratization of the state and reinforcement of the present democracy in the workshop.
In the workshop it was indicated that there had already been a human rights movement in Turkey; but this movement was regarded as an internal threat. Moreover, it was emphasized that the UN Declaration on Human Rights Advocates should be signed by Turkey. And it was highlighted that if there was a human rights politics in Turkey, it should be handled as a whole. It was stated that during law drafting process, the opinions of the human rights associations were not received and human rights politics in Turkey was based on security issue and a pragmatist attitude was adopted.
They further reiterated that people should get to the bottom of the problem so that there will be valid solutions for the problems in the context of human rights; human rights advocates should never be satisfied; the judiciary system triggers discrimination; and this discrimination is basically due to ethnic origins.
At the final part of the workshop on “The Suggestions for a Common Future Perspectives”, these were suggested with the contribution of all participants in order to form common future perspectives for human rights:
· A proposal for the human rights associations should be developed.
· There should be public control.
· There should be a dialog mechanism and a structure above associations.
· The public-civil aspect of discrimination should be analyzed.
· Concrete activities on human rights should be carried out.
· There should be information flow with thematic workshops.
· There should be a dialogue between the NGOs and public institutions.
· The public should be organized for human rights.