Middlesex-backed legal project supports jailed human rights activists in Turkey

The Turkey Human Rights Litigation project was recently awarded more than £60,000 to continue its work

A Middlesex University-backed legal project supporting jailed human rights activists in Turkey has been given a funding boost.

The Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project (TLSP) was awarded €66,515 (£56,415) from the international initiative Power for Democracies to continue its high-profile work which has included supporting the jailed Turkish activist Osman Kavala (pictured above). The project was also awarded a £5,000 grant from the Law Society Charity which has taken its total funding to more than £60,000.

TLSP, established within Middlesex’s School of Law since 2018 and led by lawyer Ayse Bingöl Demir, is a human rights litigation (the process of taking a case through the courts), research and advocacy centre set up by a group of international human rights lawyers following an attempted military coup in Turkey in 2016.

It aims to advance human rights by supporting lawyers, human rights defenders and non-government organisations (NGOs) in bringing effective cases before domestic courts, the Turkish Constitutional Court, the European Court of Human Rights and UN monitoring mechanisms.

After a failed coup by Turkish armed forces in 2016, the country’s government led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrested millions of citizens on terrorist charges, including Kavala who is also a civil society leader and philanthropist.

The European Court of Human Rights concluded Kavala was jailed in 2017 for the ulterior purpose of silencing and punishing him and to prevent his human rights work. Despite rulings by the European Court of Human Rights ordering Turkey to release him, the country has so far refused to comply and Kavala remains in jail.

Philip Leach, a Professor of Human Rights Law at Middlesex and co-supervisor of TLSP, said the global political situation with Turkey has made the case of Kavala and other similar human rights activists more complex.

“Mr Kavala has been unlawfully imprisoned for nine years now. His case is unprecedented and hugely problematic for the whole Council of Europe because it shows up the frailty of the international human rights system, when governments refuse to comply with it.”

Professor Philip Leach

Last week at a Council of Europe parliamentary assembly hearing in Strasbourg, Mr Kavala’s wife Ayşe Buğra Kavala, who is a Professor at the Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History at Boğaziçi University, said that the case has “implications beyond our personal tragedy”. She added: “I believe geopolitical interests should not override human rights values.”

TLSP lawyers have represented several high-profile cases including that of Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş who has been imprisoned since 2016 and Taner Kılıç, a Turkish civil rights activist who was detained in 2017. The European Court of Human Rights has cited the third-party interventions of TLSP lawyers when delivering its landmark rulings in the cases of Kavala, Demirtaş and Kılıç.

Power for Democracies said that the TLSP has been recognised by domestic, European Union (EU), and United Nations (UN) bodies as a leading civil society organisation engaged in Turkey-related judgment supervision.

When announcing its funding support, Power for Democracies said: “By financing the project, donors will support an organisation that has the credibility, institutional access, and legal expertise to sustain international pressure on the Turkish government through strategic litigation, implementation advocacy, and capacity building for lawyers and civil society in Turkey. In doing so, donors will help preserve the rule of law, protect civic space, and keep open the path to democratic recovery in Turkey.”

Commenting on the funding, Professor Leach said: “We’re very grateful for this support which will help continue our advocacy, third-party interventions and support for upholding human rights in Turkey and challenging violations.”

Find out more about the work of TLSP and the recommendation from Power for  Democracies. Learn more about the Middlesex University Faculty of Business and Law.

Top picture shows Osman Kavala at the Armenian Genocide centennial commemoration in 2015 near Taksim Square, Istanbul. Credit: Rupen Janbazian/WikiCommons.