NEW YORK, December 8, 2020 (Newswire.com) – Advocates of Silenced Turkey (AST) will host Freedom Convention 2020 on December 9-10 to address all human rights violations in Turkey regarding civil, political, economic, social and cultural as contained in the basic human rights documents. This two-day conference takes place on United Nations Human Rights Day, which is celebrated annually across the world on Dec. 10 every year to honor the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the first global enunciation of human rights.
For the last 3 years, AST has been raising awareness about the human rights violations in Turkey and advocating for the rights of persecuted people. The 2016 coup attempt made an accelerating impact on Turkey’s already fraying democratic mechanisms and allowed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s administration to launch a sweeping purge. More than 150,000 public workers, including generals, admirals, judges, prosecutors, doctors, teachers, police officers and etc., have been summarily sacked by emergency decrees without due process leading to human rights violations against hundreds of thousands of people. Freedom Convention 2020 is a unique convention for human rights activists, intellectuals and policymakers focused on human rights violations in Turkey.
In a total of five panel discussions, speakers, including NBA player Enes Kanter, NY Times bestselling author Rabia Chaudry and Former Canadian Secretary of State David Kilgour, will focus on various aspects of violations including: (1) Freedom of Speech and Expression, (2) Collapse of Rule of Law, (3) Shift from Democratization Towards Authoritarianism in Turkey with the Rise of Political Islam, (4) Power, Political Violence and Violations of Minority Rights, and finally, (5) Women’s Rights in Turkey. In pursuance of justice and peace, this forum aims to bring hundreds of human rights defenders and activists together and also to foster the dynamics to mobilize. Participants and experts will not only learn the ongoing violations and persecutions in Turkey but also be able to develop strategies and recommendations to the Turkish government and international bodies to end those grave violations through the panel discussions.
Through Freedom Convention 2020 – “Turkey: Grave Human Rights Violations” our goal is to bring hundreds of human rights experts, activists together to address human rights challenges, the collapse of the rule of law in Turkey, create network and provoke nonviolent ideas and actions.
This is a virtual convention. Please visit and register through http://silencedturkey.org/freedom-convention-2020
