30/12/2020 | Writer: Kaos GL
Interview book on rights organizations’ policies on LGBTI+ rights, “Now, It is High Time” is out.
Kaos GL, published the interview book, “Now, It is High Time”. The book contains journalist Sibel Yükler’s interviews with rights organizations. Book was translated to English by Özge Gökpınar and cover illustration belongs to Aslı Alpar.
The book starts with the interview with Ezgi Koman and Esin Koman, who worked for long years at Agenda: Child! (Gündem Çocuk) Association, which was closed down by the Decree Law (KHK), and who continue to work at the Child Rights Center established within the Idea and Arts Workshop Association (FISA) the rights of LGBTI+ children and the results of the violation of their rights.
Then, Öztürk Türkdoğan, Co-Chair of the Human Rights Association (IHD) discusses the brief history of the relation between human rights struggle and LGBT rights in Turkey. Then the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV-HRFT) Secretary General Metin Bakkalcı continues the discussion with torture and ill-treatment on account of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Fatma Biltekin, the coordinator of the Animal Rights Monitoring Committee (HAKIM) elborates the animal rights struggle, the intersectionality between this struggle and the LGBTI+ and women’s movement, the correlations between hate crimes and speciesism, and the current status of the animal rights law.
Human Rights Association Co-Chair Eren Keskin tells her first contact with the LGBTI+ movement and trans women, the transformation in IHD, the homophobic and transphobic approaches in rights based advocacy and the stage where the struggle for justice has reached today.
Feray Salman, General Coordinator of the Human Rights Joint Platform (IHOP) reminds when and how the issue of discrimination brought up on the agenda of the human rights movement, the processes of their meeting with the LGBTI+ movement in the first anti-discrimination meetings, the importance of monitoring and reporting in the human rights struggle, and the stance of human rights movement against discrimination today.
Berfu Şeker and Özlem Şen from the Women for Women's Human Rights– New Ways (KİH-YÇ -WWHR) discusses women’s human rights, the theme of feminist and LGBTI movement from the past to the present, the attacks against these two movements and the struggle against current debates.
At the end of the book Umut Güner from Kaos GL evaluates the series of “Rights” as “More constructional steps shall be taken in order to ensure a concrete structural change. Therefore, it is meaningless to say, ‘We are here, come to us’”.
Click here to reach the book in English.
Tags: human rights, media
