International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies’ Executive Committee made a public statement on January 19th, 2016, on the situation in Turkey.
The members of the H.R. Network’s Executive Committee are alarmed by the increasingly repressive and inflammatory reaction by Turkish government leaders, many university officials, and other intolerant individuals toward hundreds of our Turkish colleagues, solely because they publicly expressed humanitarian concerns about the grave crisis in south eastern Turkey.
They further condemn any threats, false accusations, and incitement to violence against their academic colleagues by the government of Turkey, which is obligated, under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to allow its citizens the “freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
The statement was sent to a number of Turkish government officials.
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The International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies is a cooperative network that advocates for the human rights of scholars and researchers and promotes awareness of human rights issues within the science community.
Council of Finnish Academies have their own Human Rights Committee which maintains contacts with the network and actively writes letters of appeal in support of scholars facing human rights violations.