Скачать или смотреть CHALLENGES OF BEING A HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER IN AN ANTI DEMOCRATIC ENVIRONMENT: Case of GERGERLIOGLU

Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu is a Turkish medical doctor and human rights, activist. He was elected to parliament in 2018 from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). He has dedicated his political career to fighting against human rights violations in Turkey. He played the leading role in revealing torture cases and in bringing human rights tragedies to the public attention.

Gergerlioglu was found guilty in February 2018 of “spreading terrorist propaganda” on the basis of a 2016 social media post that did not advocate violence. Turkey’s top appeals court upheld the conviction and sentence of two years and six months in prison on February 19, 2021.

On March 17, the speaker of Turkey’s parliament stripped Gergerlioglu of his parliamentary seat by reading out the notification of his conviction for a social media posting at the general assembly of the parliament.

We will be discussing the topic and similarities between Apartheid Regime of South Africa and today's Turkey with prominent lawyers and human rights activists Adv. Krish Govender and Adv. Mfana Gwala from South Africa and with Gergerlioglu himself from Turkey.