Dr. Hassan Aydinli, ITF EU Representative, met Mr. Willy Fautré, Chairman of Human Rights Without Frontiers

Brussels, March 2012

Note:  Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) is a non-profit organization based in Brussels (Belgium) that promotes human rights through fact-finding missions, research and advocacy. It has offices in Belgium, Nepal and Hong Kong.

The organization was created in 1988 and was officially registered in 1989. It has carried out fact-finding missions in numerous countries: Albania, Bahrain, Bulgaria, China.

Part of its advocacy cycle is devoted to formulating issues and identifying possible “target” loci of advocacy, which are primarily in the domain of international organisations. The United Nations, the European Union, the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) are the main venues for targeted and structured human rights advocacy activities.

Dr. Hassan Aydinli, ITF EU Representative, met Mr. Willy Fautré, Chairman of HRWF to update him on the plight of the Turkmens in Iraq.

The European Union is an important international actor and human rights have become an integral and important part of its external relations. The principles of liberty, democracy, the rule of law and the respect for human rights are goals of the foreign and security policy of the European Union and underpin its co-operation with third countries. In this respect, the EU institutions – the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the European – are crucial to human rights promotion worldwide.

Dr. Hassan Aydinli has met Mr. Willy Fautré on several occasions before and he has had the opportunity to inform him about the discriminations from which Turkmens continue to be the victims in today’s Iraq.

He has given him several books by Turkmen authors, namely the book on Kerkuk’s archictecture by Dr. Suphi Saatçi, which shows the long presence of the Turkmens in this city.

The Azeris, the Uyghurs, the Assyrians and the Iraqi Christians have called upon HRWF to lobby for their cause and Mr. Willy Fautré has organised several conferences and events for them at the EU Parliament.  It is to be noted that the aforementioned ethnic/religious groups have also called upon UNPO to lobby for their cause.

For the attention of TURKMEN under-graduate and post-graduate students interested in Internships at HRWF in Brussels

Note: All costs(travel, accommodation etc)  to be paid by the student.

Internships

Human Rights Without Frontiers offers placements for internships of varying duration from one to five months depending on the applicant's availability and education plan.

The aim of the internship programme is to offer to under-graduate and post-graduate students the opportunity to expand the scope of their studies by acquiring practical knowledge and a better understanding of human rights issues and advocacy.

The internships are designed to be a learning experience. Assignments would vary in terms of content and of the intern's profile with the purpose to match the interests of the intern with the needs of the organisation. Assignments would be designed either within on-going programs or on an ad-hoc basis.

The work plan would include:

·         attendance of conferences at the European Parliament and think-tanks;

·         research and synthesis of information on specific topics;

·         cataloguing knowledge and information;

·         preparing reports, analyses and interviews when assignments and responsibilities are commensurate with the intern's experience.

Human Rights Without Frontiers views the integration of interns in its programme of activities as a long-term investment in the promotion of human rights worldwide. On the one hand, they have the potential to offer the most recent thinking and research tools in their area of study and to contribute to the activities of the organisation. On the other, they would gain experience that would allow them to pursue human rights advocacy in the decades to come at different institutions and at different levels.

We view human rights issues and advocacy as an area of challenges and opportunities and expect interns to share our commitment and enthusiasm.

Duration of the internships: 3 months (not in summer) starting at mid-September, mid-January and mid-April

How to apply? Send an email to international.secretariat.brussels@hrwf.org This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with a letter of motivation, your CV(Resume) and 2 articles/reports in English that you have written