The issue of labour safety made a return to the headlines in Turkey with a mine “accident” on the night of November 17th. In an open copper mine in the war depressed south-eastern region of the country, 16 workers - truck drivers and operators of earthmovers – were buried by a landslide. 

The Interior Ministry of Turkey has taken a new step by suspending the activities of 370 NGOs for three months for their alleged connections with the Gülenists (153), PKK (190), DHKP-C (19), and ISIS (8). The decree was based on the Law of the State of Emergency and was justified by the need “to protect the general security and the public order.”

The Turkish civil society, among them the Climate Network, is monitoring Turkey during COP22 Marrakesh Climate Summit Negotiations, and keeps reminding the demands while Turkey bargains for the climate finance support

The students, the parents, the graduate associations of these long-established schools criticize this policy of project schools to the making of which they didn’t participate in any way, and fear that the government sees these schools as the new fronts in expanding its Islamist hegemony.

Civil society space is under attack worldwide. In her welcoming speech to the Global Perspectives Conference, Barbara Unmüßig urged 160 representatives of civil society organisations from around the globe to stand in solidarity with each other and to put the issue of shrinking and closing spaces back on the political agenda.

Repression of civil society is on the rise all over the world. The charter aims to support civil society organizations as activists throughout the world, to advocate for their rights and freedom of action, and to demand government guarantees.

A recent research by Kadir Has University, Istanbul indicates that there is almost a de-facto abortion ban all over Turkey.

A brief, critical view to Turkey's (official) National HABITAT III Report, prepared by Helsinki Citizens' Assembly - Turkey

The pressure on the media in Turkey has reached a new peak with the recently introduced “Periodicals Regulation,” and especially its parts concerning the official Press Announcement Agency

The NGO Global Witness documents 185 known deaths of environmental activists worldwide in 2015 - the highest annual death toll on record. Claudia Rolf spoke to one of the authors of the report, Billy Kyte.