CONF Seminar: Murat Çelikhan (Hafıza Merkezi)

Sabancı University
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

CONFLICT ANALYSIS AND RESOLUTION SEMINAR

The Role of Documentation in The Right To Truth

Murat Çelikkan

(Hafıza Merkezi)

Thursday, December 11, 2014  
10:30   FASS 2034

In recent years, the right to truth has increasingly gained importance as a concept in dealing with past human rights violations during times of conflict and authoritarian rule. That the victims have a right to know what happened to thier loved ones is becoming an internationally accepted right in international documents and treaties. Critical in establishing the right to truth is documenting the truth, often by civil society organizations. In many examples of Truth Commissions from all around the world, the previous documentation work of civil society organizations have been instrumental in both the construction of a new collective memory as well as the subsequent trials. This presentation will focus on the right to truth, role of documentation in truth commissions and relate these concepts to dealing with the past in Turkey in general and the work of Hafıza Merkezi in particular.

Murat Çelikkan 

Murat Çelikkan is the co-director of Hafıza Merkezi/Truth Justice Memory Center Turkey. He is a journalist. Çelikkan has been an active member of the Turkish Human Rights Movement. He was active in Human Rights Association, Helsinki Citizens Assembly, Amnesty International and Human Rights Foundation.

P.S.: The seminar will be held in English.