The Movement was born when Tayfun Gonul and Vedat Zencir declared via the Sokak magazine that they rejected the military service, in December 1989 and February 1990 respectively. While being convicted, facing tortures, they organized creative and inspiring events in the streets in order to be heard. For the last 4 years, the European Council Committee of Parliamentarians has been sending warnings to Turkey every six months to have new regulations about the conscientious objection. In 2010, the number of conscientious objectors in Turkey reached 121, including 24 women and 5 visually impaired participants. The Movement received the 2010 International Hrant Dink Award. In the Jury, Conscientious Objection Movement in Turkey will be represented by Ersan Ugur Gor.

At 32, he qualified for one of the openings on the high court in Madrid. During an investigation, evidence soon emerged tying the Spanish security forces to the rightist assassination squads that came to be known as the Grupos Anti-terroristas de Liberación (GAL). In 1998, he issued an international arrest warrant for Chilean junta leader Pinochet, who was in England at the time, for the crimes of torture and assassination of the Spanish citizens. The case served notice to many of the world’s tyrants that their impunity had been circumscribed, and it opened the way to other prosecutions for crimes against humanity in Europe, America and Africa. He filed charges of genocide against Argentine military officers on the disappearance of Spanish citizens during Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship. In 2008, he initiated an investigation on the 114,000 disappearance during the Franco regime in Spain. He received the International Hrant Dink Award in 2010.

She has carried out various responsibilities at Radio Ankara and TRT. She quitted her job in TRT Radio Department, when the corporate autonomy was seized. In addition to being one of the leading names of Turkish literature with her novels and short stories, the writer is one of the most important names in the field of human rights as well.

He has worked as editor in chief and editor at Armenia’s leading newspapers. He is the president of Yerevan Press Club and co-president of International Association of Journalists “South Caucasus”.

He had active role in the 1968 student protest in France. In 1989 he became deputy mayor of Frankfurt. In 1999 he was elected to European Union parliament as the leader of French Green Party. In 2002 he became the president of the Green parliamentary group.

He worked as a journalist/columnist in many newspapers and magazines. He took duty as the editor in chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper between 1981 and 1992. He became the front page writer of Sabah newspaper between 1992 and 1998. He continues to write articles in Milliyet newspaper. His articles aim to stress the taboo issues of the country.

She is specialized in international law and human rights. In 1980, she started to work for United Nations and spent 20 years as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She joined Amnesty International in 2001 as its Secretary General and held this position until 2009.

She is a professor in the Rhetoric and Comparative Literature departments at the University of California, Berkeley. She is one of the forefront intellectuals doing ground breaking work in the fields of feminism, homosexuality doctrine, political philosophy and ethic.

Rakel Dink became involved in human rights activism following the tragic assassination of her husband, the prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist and founder of Agos newspaper, Hrant Dink.

Born to an Armenian family in Silopi, southeastern Turkey, Rakel moved to Istanbul with tens of kids from Anatolia in order to receive education in Armenian Schools. She met with Hrant Dink at Camp Armen, where Armenian children orphans or those away from their families would spend their summers. Rakel and Hrant got married and became managers at Camp Armen in the following years until the property was seized by the state.

Following the death of Hrant Dink in January 2007, Rakel devoted her life to preserving her husband’s legacy. She established the Hrant Dink Foundation in 2007, with a mission to protect and uphold human rights in Turkey, preserve the identity and culture of minorities, address polarization, and normalize Turkish-Armenian relations. Rakel continues to be an optimist and maintains that despite the various challenges that she was forced to overcome throughout her life, she has been surrounded by love and kindness. She is hopeful for the future of Turkey and finds joy in her work and her family.