News

The history of the Kurds indicates that betrayal and treachery has played an essential role in their domination over at least the last four centuries. In this short paper, I claim that the Kurdish people should reflect on the death of Jîna Emînî (Mahsa Amini), and the current events in Iran, from a political realist […]

In an interview, Margaret Owen OBE, a barrister, international women’s human rights activist, patron of Peace in Kurdistan and founder and president of Widows for Peace and Democracy (WPD) and advisor at Mojust, explained why Suella Braverman’s position as UK’s home secretary is untenable, given the asylum policies and practices she has overseen, which have […]

A recently published report of mine – ‘Turkey’s Destruction of Kurdish Graves’ – published by the Mesopotamia Observatory of Justice (Mojust) and the Turkey based Özgürlük için Hukukçular Derneği (Association of Lawyers for Freedom – ÖHD) provides, for the first time, an unprecedented account of Turkey’s acts of destruction that have been directed against Kurdish […]

Friday’s conviction of four human rights defenders of terrorism charges in Istanbul continues the pattern of prosecutions designed to restrict human rights defenders and silence critical voices. These baseless convictions are consistent with the recent warning of Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, of a politicised Turkish judiciary criminalising legitimate and peaceful […]

Three opposition MPs in Turkey had their parliamentary immunity revoked and were arrested on Thursday in a re-opening of the Government’s campaign against the democratic mandate. The announcement in parliament prompted shock, anger and protests among People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputies. This latest disregard for the expression of the will […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed our lives and enjoyment of rights. The now-familiar curfews and other restrictions are, in principle, permissible under human rights law (see here and here). Nonetheless, there are many unresolved questions (see here and here) and, for some, the pandemic-emergency is an opportunity to weaken democratic institutions and set permanent […]

“Those who opposed (the project) were accused of being political. Even if you’re an environmentalist, a patriot, or animal lover, they labelled you as something else when you said ‘Stop!’ to the project. Now, we’re watching history slowly disappear” (see here From the Bamiyan statues (see here) to the cities of Palmyra (see here) and […]

United Nations experts have expressed shock and dismay at Iran’s execution of a second child offender in four days amid concerns that further executions may take place in the coming days. The executions of Majid Esmailzadeh on 18 April 2020 and Shayan Saeedpour on 21 April 2020 once again put Iran in breach of the […]

Today the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the ongoing detention of Osman Kavala, philanthropist, human rights defender and a defendant in the ‘Gezi Park Case’, violates his right to liberty and security of the person (see here). In a landmark finding, the European Court further declared that his detention pursued an ulterior purpose, […]

The International Criminal Court (ICC) will from now on be able to prosecute the intentional starvation of civilians in civil wars as a war crime. The ICC Assembly of States Parties took a unanimous decision to this effect earlier today. It strengthens the protection of victims of war. The majority of the over 800 million […]