Human Rights Association

The İHD's origins can be traced to the victims of the purges in the aftermath of the military coup of 1980 and was founded on 17 July 1986. The 98 founding members comprised lawyers, journalists, intellectuals, but mainly relatives of political prisoners. The organization works on all kind of human rights, but is mainly focused on abuses in Turkey. After in 1992 the IHD came under scrutiny from the public for not holding the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) accountable for their war crimes, the IHD acknowledged that in the southeast Turkey was raging a war. In 1992, the statute was changed to cover humanitarian aspects as laid out in the Geneva Conventions. The IHD also criticized human rights violations of armed groups like the PKK which lead to criticism both by the PKK as the Turkish Government wanted the PKK to be mentioned as a terrorist organization and not a party in a conflict.