Istanbul Bilgi University Human Rights Law Research Center organized its second “Human Rights Law Summer School” between 18-22 July 2016. The 2016 Summer School targeted 3rd and 4th grade law faculty students. 

The Summer School is attended by 25 undergraduate law students from universities of Anadolu, Ankara, Başkent, Dokuz Eylül, Istanbul Bilgi, Istanbul, Kadir Has, Kocaeli, Koç, Marmara, Ufuk, Uludağ and Yeditepe. 

The topics that were covered in the Human Rights Law Summer School were; human rights law and protection and monitoring mechanisms; fundamental rights and freedoms in the constitution; law in the political context of Turkey; equality and prohibition of discrimination; right to the city; women’s rights; refugee rights; freedom of expression; Internet freedom; freedom of peaceful assembly, demonstration and association; social rights as human rights; rights of the child; the role of civil society organization in human rights advocacy; LGBT rights; rights of prisoners; and confrontation with the past.  

Throughout the program of the Summer School that was held in santralistanbul Campus of Istanbul Bilgi University, along with lectures provided by lecturers on above mentioned topics, interactive methods such as group-work and discussion sessions were conducted with the aim to develop skills and enhance knowledge of the participants. Besides lectures, students had the opportunity to meet with representatives of civil society organizations and international human rights organizations who shared their experience in human rights research and advocacy.

The themes covered and the lecturers of the Summer School were the following:

• “Human rights law and protection regime: Introduction and critical analysis”, Prof. Dr. Turgut Tarhanlı, Istanbul Bilgi University Dean of Faculty of Law and Director of Human Rights Law Research Center
• “Constitutional rights and freedoms, the regime of restriction of rights, and constitutional application mechanisms”, Asst. Prof. Dr. Ulaş Karan, Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law
• “Law in the political context of Turkey”, Asst. Prof. Dr. İdil Elveriş, Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law
• “Equality and prohibition of discrimination-I”, Asst. Prof. Dr. İdil Işıl Gül, Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law
•  “Equality and prohibition of discrimination-II”, Lecturer Burcu Yeşiladalı, Istanbul Bilgi University Human Rights Law Research Center
• “Urban ‘Destruction’ Spaces: Screening of Fatih Pınar short films” and “Right to the city”, Dr. Zümray Kutlu, Anadolu Kültür
• “Women’s rights”, Lecturer Sevinç Eryılmaz, Istanbul Bilgi University Human Rights Law Research Center
• “Refugee rights”, Asst. Prof. Dr. Lami Bertan Tokuzlu, Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law
• “The role of CSOs in human rights advocacy”
  • Rozerin Seda Kip, Social Policies, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association (SPoD) 
  • Mustafa Eren, Civil Society in the Penal System (CISST)
  • Özgül Kapdan, Women’s Solidarity Foundation (KADAV) 
• “Visit to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Istanbul Office”, Elif Selen Ay, UNHCR Istanbul Office
• “Freedom of speech” and “Internet freedom”, Prof. Dr. Yaman Akdeniz, Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law
• “Freedom of peaceful assembly, demonstration and association”, Expert Researcher Gökçeçiçek Ayata, Istanbul Bilgi University Human Rights Law Research Center
• “Social rights as human rights”, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aziz Çelik, Kocaeli University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences
• “Rights of the child: The right of the child to participate in child protection cases”, Seda Akço, Istanbul Bar Association 

The last three sessions of the last day of the Summer School were held on specific themes with distinguished guest speakers. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nergis Canefe (York University, Toronto, Department of Political Science), Asst. Prof. Dr. Galma Akdeniz (Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law) and Cansu Muratoğlu, LL.M. (Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law) made their contribution to the Summer School by discussing the issue of “Confrontation with past and human rights” with multiple perspectives in two sessions: “Facts, approaches and debates” and “Truth and the right to truth”.  Both sessions were moderated by Prof. Dr. Turgut Tarhanlı.

The last session of the Summer School was attended by the distinguished guest speaker Prof. Dr. Işıl Karakaş, Judge of the European Court of Human Rights. Prof. Karakaş held her closing speech on “Rule of law and judicial independence in the framework of European Court of Human Rights decisions: Observations on Turkey”. At the end of this session moderated by Prof. Tarhanlı, Prof. Karakaş responded to questions raised by the Summer School students. 

At the end of the closing remarks Prof. Tarhanlı and Prof. Karakaş presented the participation certificates to the Summer School students. 

Istanbul Bilgi University Human Rights Law Research Center aims to run the Summer School regularly every year targeting many other students who are eager to enhance their knowledge and skills in the field of human rights law.

Please click for the first Summer School held between 7-11 September 2015.

Photography: Hüseyin Aldemir, Yağızcan Veli, Burcu Yeşiladalı, Gökçeçiçek Ayata, Sevinç Eryılmaz