Who Are We
This text has been prepared in order to convey the position, policies and accountability of the Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) in its activities to the relevant parties. For further details about IHH's work, the guidance in this text should be followed.
The Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) was officially established in 1995 and is an independent, non-profit, Türkiye-based non-governmental organization that carries out humanitarian aid work on a local and international scale and bases its existence on national and international legislation, as stated in the foundation's charter.
IHH is one of the rights-based non-governmental organizations due to its founding purpose and activities. Since its establishment, IHH has been working in six continents and 123 countries around the world in the fields of humanitarian aid, humanitarian diplomacy, rights advocacy, search and rescue, emergency aid, health, education, and the solution of crises and the healing of wounds, without discriminating between region, religion, language, race, age, gender or sect. IHH prioritizes war and war-affected regions, disaster areas and poverty-stricken countries and regions all over the world while realizing its mission.
IHH, which prioritizes producing permanent solutions and implementing permanent projects in the geographies where it operates, adheres to the philosophy and principles of fundamental human rights and engages in activities to reinterpret and protect fundamental human rights and to understand the positive and negative developments in fundamental human rights in a rapidly changing world.
IHH is also associated with numerous international councils and umbrella organizations. IHH does not work under the guidance or influence of any political party or any structure, except for its collaborations with reputable humanitarian organizations.
Ethical Values
IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation carries out its activities by knowing and observing that the protection of human life, belief, mind, property and generation safety is the most natural and indispensable right. IHH fights on the side of the righteous against those who violate this right wherever and by whomever.
As a humanitarian actor, IHH does not take sides in conflicts and does not get involved in political, racial, religious or ideological debates within the scope of its values.
It carries out humanitarian aid intervention in a timely and effective manner. It aims to strengthen local capacity in humanitarian response operations, thus preventing negative impacts. Humanitarian response is based on communication, feedback and participation. IHH teams receive professional trainings on these issues. It is open to and responds to complaints.
IHH considers international texts such as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions, and similar texts such as Hilfu'l-Fudul, the Medina Charter, the Ten Commandments and similar texts as common achievements of humanity, follows the development of these achievements and acts accordingly.
Audit, Risk Analysis and Compliance
IHH has implemented the Compliance and Risk Unit and carries out activities to ensure compliance with professional norms and standards as well as accepted business experiences, internal standards, ethics and legitimacy perspective, and manages third party relations from this perspective. The Compliance and Risk Unit is responsible for ensuring full compliance with local and international procedures and principles in IHH's work in its field, taking into account sectoral activities. In order to protect IHH's reputation, it submits review reports to its managers and acts as a consultant and supporter within the organization to identify and prevent risks that IHH may face. IHH initiates and maintains cooperation with donor and local partner organizations or decides not to work with the relevant organization, taking into account local legislation, internal legislation and the work of the Compliance and Risk Unit. In this process, the official status of the organization, the legal status and background of the organization and its managers, the activities of the organization, positive and negative news about the organization, the documentation skills of the organization, etc. are carefully handled by the Compliance and Risk Unit and the status of the cooperation is decided accordingly.
IHH's Fund Management Mechanism operates and controls to ensure the normal flow of funds and cash cycle, to control the funds, to ensure the correct transfer to the relevant projects and campaigns, and to maintain the balance of the organization's income and expenditure.
The Fund Management Mechanism aims to enable IHH managers to make healthy, appropriate and benefit-oriented decisions with rational, easy-to-understand and fact-based data prepared with the aim of high efficiency and minimum risk.
IHH is regularly audited in accordance with the legal procedure within the framework of the legislation determined by the competent authorities. Apart from these audits, there are also internal audit mechanisms. In addition, IHH's activities are monitored, evaluated and reported by the Audit Board, Compliance and Risk Unit, independent audit institutions, experts and opinion leaders of the society, donors, volunteers and members of the media as needed and competent, within the framework of national, international and IHH internal legislation, ethical and moral values. IHH undergoes regular surveillance audits every year within the scope of the certificates it has received.