On the second day of the event on advocacy organized by Hrant Dink Foundation, 28 June 2019 at 14:00-16:00, a workshop entitled ‘Advocacy in Difficult Times’ took place.

This workshop, held with the participation of our international invited speakers Agnes Kabajuni (Minority Rights Group International) and Atanas Zahariev (European Roma Rights Center), brought civil society actors, academics and students working in the field of advocacy in Turkey together.

During the workshop, the impact of rising totalitarian regimes and anti-democratic policies around the world and also in Turkey on the civil society and advocacy work was discussed. The difficulties of working project-based, the need for national and international collaboration and supporting of grassroots organizations while the spaces of advocacy are shrinking were stressed. In addition, the need for solidarity among different right-based groups and production of common policies was mentioned. The need for new and innovative approaches to advocacy such as the use of social media and virtual platforms in order to cope with the shrinking public space was underlined. 

This project is funded by European Union.