Human Rights Association (Turkey)

The Human Rights Association (Turkish: İnsan Hakları Derneği, İHD) is an NGO for advancing Human rights in Turkey, founded in 1986 and headquartered in Ankara.

The İHD was founded on 17 July 1986, by 98 people, comprising lawyers, journalists, intellectuals, but mainly relatives of political prisoners. The organization works on all kind of human rights, but is mainly focused on abuses in Turkey. In 1992, the statute was changed to cover humanitarian aspects as laid out in the Geneva Conventions. Since then the İHD has also criticized human violations of armed groups.

Official figures of the İHD claim 10,000 members, in 29 branches in 81 provinces of Turkey. The 24 board members are elected for terms of two years on the association's general assembly. The headquarters in Ankara as well as many branches (in particular the branches in Istanbul and Diyarbakir) are running commissions according to the need. The commission cover subjects such as the Kurdish question, women, children, prisons and torture.

Some of the large number of campaigns of the İHD were: freedom of expression (2001), general amnesty for prisoners (1999), abolition of the death penalty (abolished in 2002–2004), abolition of the state security courts (1997). In 2004 a project called "Don't remain silent against torture" (İşkenceye Sessiz Kalma) was started.

The İHD has also recognized the Armenian Genocide and has called for the Turkish government to end its denial.

Since its foundation the İHD has been facing state intervention into its work, but also direct violence of individuals or nationalist groups. İHD website claims 400 court cases against executives of the association; the governors of some provinces ordered the closure of branches 30 times; the chairman of the branch in Diyarbakir that stayed close between 1997 and 2000, Osman Baydemir, had to face 60 investigative or penal cases against him in one year; in 2000 the branch in Izmir had the same number of cases initiated against it; because of speeches in 1995 and 1996 the then president of the İHD, Akın Birdal, was sentenced to 20 months' imprisonment, of which he served 14 months.

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