Human Rights

IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation has been continuing its efforts and stance to protect fundamental rights and freedoms, to develop, protect and make effective civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights since its establishment. Working for human rights and effective advocacy has been one of the main objectives of our Foundation. In line with this purpose, we not only provide the necessary humanitarian aid to all people who are in distress wherever they are, who have been victimised and persecuted due to reasons such as war and natural disasters, but also carry out activities to prevent the violation of their fundamental rights and freedoms.

IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, adhering to the philosophy and principles of fundamental human rights, carries out 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. In this context, it considers all international texts such as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions as the common achievements of humanity, follows the development of these achievements and acts accordingly.

In this context, we follow the developments in the world regarding human rights, carry out research and reporting activities, organise programmes to raise awareness and raise consciousness about human rights, and carry out organisations and actions such as panels, workshops, conferences and marches related to past or ongoing crises and violations.

As IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, we continue to show the attitude and tendency we have had since our establishment regarding the rights violations that have occurred as a result of the political, economic and military crises that have occurred in the past and continue today, and we openly express the requirements of rights and law. 

The field of human rights activities of our Foundation is wherever there are human beings. In this direction, for every person who has been subjected to human rights violations, we fight for human rights and justice by joining forces with human rights defenders and institutions everywhere. In our human rights work, we maintain our independent and equal distance to all states, political parties, ideologies and groups. 

We see human rights as the inherent rights of all human beings regardless of language, religion, sect and race, and we carry out our activities on rights advocacy and human rights in this context.

We prioritise five main themes in our work on human rights and shape our work around these themes. These are:

- Right to live
- Combating torture and security of person
- Freedom of religion and conscience
- Freedom of expression and thought
- Protection of human dignity
- Protection of human generation and integrity.

Our Foundation acts with the idea that the violation of human rights anywhere in the world causes a humanitarian crisis and that humanitarian crises are caused by the violation of human rights. This idea argues that the basic human rights of the people in the regions of the world in need of humanitarian aid are violated first and that this series of violations leads to the developments that make these regions and regions in need of humanitarian aid. Acting with this in mind, IHH has a very active history in protecting human rights and preventing violations of rights. The campaign titled "Not a Joke, Genocide", which aims to close the concentration camps in East Turkistan and raise awareness about the human rights violations that have been going on in the region for years, The Gaza Land Convoy (Set Out for Palestine) and the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which were organised to draw attention to the violations committed by Israel in Palestine and to break the blockade and embargo on Gaza, which it has turned into an open-air prison, and the International Convoy of Conscience, which was formed to draw attention to women imprisoned, tortured and ill-treated in the civil war in Syria for years and to demand their freedom, are among the important international human rights campaigns of our Foundation.

We also carry out crisis prevention activities by preparing publications to inform the world public opinion about natural and human disasters, conflicts, crises and war situations in the world and to develop common thinking for solutions. In this context, by following regional and global developments, preparing articles, analyses, reports and booklets on the protection of human rights and prevention of human rights violations and sharing the developments with the public, we aim to contribute to both the prevention of rights violations and the creation of social awareness on human rights.

We remain committed to our rules and guidelines for the protection of human rights and the prevention of violations of human rights, including avoiding violations of human rights in our actions and activities, taking responsibility for remedying any adverse effects of rights violations that may arise in our activities or in the activities of our stakeholders on our behalf, and providing support for education, health, safety and other human rights-related issues in all countries where we operate.

We continue our efforts to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms that all human beings are entitled to simply by being human and to identify violations of rights.

We declare that we will never give up the struggle against all kinds of rights violations wherever they are committed and by whomever they are committed, today and tomorrow, as we did yesterday, and that we will continue to stand by the oppressed