Who are we?

AK-DER is a human rights organization that was founded on February 15, 1999 by women In Turkey who were deprived of their rights to education and work because of the ban on headscarf. The founders of AK-DER comprised of female students, doctors, lawyers, teachers, academicians and civil servants. They all had personally experienced discrimination and had to give up on their education, work life and career.

Women in Turkey have historically faced difficulties when they demanded to be active participants in public life. AK-DER recognizes the crucial role of women as homemakers and equally advocates the view that women`s contribution to the society should go beyond the traditional role. Therefore it is of paramount importance that women from all ethnic, religious or social backgrounds should be given equal opportunity to exercise human rights without any compromise on their personal values and beliefs.

AK-DER believes that problems in the country arose from the gaps in the field of human rights and defects in the justice system . Therefore since its foundation, AK-DER has been working on all legal national and international platforms to promote human rights and to remove obstacles in the way of equal opportunity and access to every sphere of public life for women from all backgrounds.

In June 1998, they organized “White Walk” to Ankara from Istanbul, to find a solution to the headscarf ban.
 

In October 1998,they organized, “The chain of Respect for Beliefs and Freedom of Expression”, where people all over the country stood up against oppression, standing with dignity and honor. Nearly 3 million people came together hand in hand..

• 2010 June: New York, UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women(CEDAW),
• 2010 April: Paris, attending in a meeting on Gender Equality as an expert, European Commission,
• 2010 March: New York, UN Bejiing +15 Cımission Meeting,
• 2009 October: Vienna, Annual Meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
• 2008 August: New York, UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women(CEDAW),
• 2007 January: New York, UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women(CEDAW),
• 2007 March: Vienna, Meeting on Gender equality and womenof the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
• 2006 October: Varsaw, Human Dimension Meeting of OSCE,
• 2006 November: London, Visit to General Office of the Amnesty International,
• 2006 April: Strasbourg, Visit to European Commision, European Parliament, European court of Human Rights.