HOW SAFE ARE HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE WORLD? 12 CONSIDER NEW PERSPECTIVES
Working to protect human rights is everyone’s responsibility, but some people have made it their life’s work, and risk their lives in doing so. Every year Front Line Defenders gives out awards to activists from around the world who have put themselves in harm’s way to work for the human rights of others.
In 2018 these people all received awards:
Nurcan Baysal (Turkey): Regional Winner for Europe and Central Asia
Nurcan Baysal is a Kurdish journalist. In 2016, she spent months visiting Kurdish villages that were suffering under government military actions. She documented human rights violations and worked to help families who had lost everything in the conflict. Her writing often focuses on women’s lives. When the Turkish military launched an operation in Afrin, Syria, Nurcan used social media to speak out against the violence and was arrested. Though later released, she now faces up to three years in jail as the authorities claim that her writing ‘spread propaganda for armed terrorist organisations’. Alongside her journalism, Nurcan has been involved in setting up NGOs and a camp for women fleeing the Islamic State.
Kurdish: the Kurds are an ethnic group mostly based in areas of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. The Turkish government and Kurdish groups have long been in conflict
Islamic State: an extremist Islamic military movement that recently controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq. Also sometimes called Daesh, ISIS or ISIL
