Ramazan Demir recipient of 2017 IBA Human Rights Award

Türkiye

Lawyers for Lawyers nominated Ramazan Demir for the IBA Human Rights Award because we believe he is “a prominent and fearless defender of the rule of law and human rights.” Ramazan Demir is a Turkish human rights lawyer, who has in his young career made an outstanding contribution to the promotion, protection and advancement of the human rights of all, and of the Kurdish people in Turkey in particular. Since 2009, Ramazan Demir has represented, amongst others, journalists and lawyers in Turkey. Due to his valuable human rights work, Ramazan Demir has faced serious personal consequences as criminal charges have been brought against him twice, most recently in March 2016. Despite the fact that the criminal trial against him is still on-going, Ramazan Demir continues his valuable human rights work up until today.

The IBA Human Rights Award is annually awarded to a legal practitioner who, through personal endeavour in the course of such practice, is deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to the promotion, protection and advancement of the human rights of all, or any group of, people, particularly with respect to their right to live in a fair and just society under the rule of law. The members of the IBA judging panel noted that in terms of Ramazan Demir’s efforts in the protection and advancement of Human Rights, he has made “significant personal endeavours” and in terms of the international impact and sustainability, Ramazan Demir has made “a high impact on defence work in extremely challenging and threatening circumstances”.

Ramazan Demir’s acceptance speech can be watched here:

Human Rights Award 2017 – Ramazan Demir from International Bar Association on Vimeo.