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Peter Steudtner was detained along with nine others in July during a workshop in Istanbul, where he and Ali Gharavi were training human rights defenders on wellbeing and digital security. Among the attendees was Amnesty Turkey’s Director İdil Eser. Currently eight of them remain in prison and two are on bail, all facing an investigation under anti-terrorism laws. They have done nothing wrong.

Peter has written a message from his cell about coping with life in prison:

"To all who accompany me in thought and deed!

A wholehearted thankyou to all who support us, especially to my family and friends (and all who support them), to the German government, Ministries, Embassy, Consulate; to my legal team, and to my holistic security team, HIVOS + KURVE Wustrow, to all political campaigns that demand our release!

As I do not have any contact anymore with Ali and the other human rights defenders, I am writing this letter on my behalf only.

In July 2017, our friend and colleague İdil Eser, the Director of Amnesty Turkey, was detained along with nine other human rights defenders in Istanbul. Currently eight of them are in prison and two are on bail, all are facing an investigation under anti-terrorism laws. Yet they have done nothing wrong.

It came only a month after Amnesty Turkey’s Chair, Taner Kılıç was detained, also unfairly. He remains in prison.

On 14 October 2017, Amnesty will hold a global day of action demanding their release to coincide with Idil’s birthday.

So why is this happening to them?

What happened on 5 July 2017?

It should have been an ordinary day for İdil Eser, director of Amnesty Turkey. She was attending a workshop on wellbeing and digital security with colleagues from other human rights organisations in Istanbul – the kind of gathering that takes place around the world every week. It included open discussions about the stresses they encounter and practical ways of dealing with these.

But during the workshop police raided the building and detained them all, including the two workshop trainers.

Implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is too important to take place in a piecemeal or haphazard way. 

That’s why Amnesty International has joined with Indigenous Peoples' organizations and other partners to call on the federal government to embrace and build on the framework offered by a private members bill, Bill C-262, that is now before Parliament.

By Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International’s Director of Global Issues.

*This article was originally published in The Diplomat. 

For the past month, the world has watched in horror as Myanmar’s army has carried out a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against members of the Rohingya minority in the west of the country. Almost 500,000 women, men and children have already crossed the border into Bangladesh, leaving behind dead family members, burned villages and a shattered homeland.

While the international community has rightly focused on the horrors precipitating the mass exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar, Myanmar’s neighbors remain woefully unprepared to handle the spillover effects of the crisis.