Hafıza Merkezi's work focuses on four main areas: 1) Memory and Peace Studies, 2) Legal Studies, 3) Support for Human Rights Organizations and Advocates, and 4) International Cooperation and Solidarity.
Memory and Peace Studies
We work towards documenting, reporting, and memorializing severe human rights violations in accordance with international standards to reveal the truth. We organize memory workshops and documentation training for young people and engage in relationships with art and creative fields. Recognizing that confrontation can only occur in a peaceful environment, we conduct efforts aimed at achieving a lasting and sustainable peace in the Kurdish issue. Peace studies primarily focus on learning from Turkey's stalled resolution process and good examples from around the world.
Legal Studies
To address grave human rights violations and ensure access to justice for affected groups, we carry out legal work aimed at achieving justice. Activities implemented to overcome the structural problem of state officials involved in crimes going unpunished form the basis of this field, addressing the weaknesses that this impunity creates in criminal justice and democracy. The Memory Justice and Memory Center contributes to this fight through activities such as legal documentation, monitoring cases, conducting analysis work, and engaging in national and international legal interventions. This field also encompasses the struggle to uphold the rule of law through various national and international legal interventions.
Supporting Human Rights Defenders and Organizations
In the face of pressures on human rights defenders and the shrinking civil space, we engage in monitoring, reporting, and support activities to combat these challenges. We provide grants and capacity-building support to civil society organizations working on rights-based approaches. We strive to develop information and expertise on new methods of advocacy in the field of human rights and share this knowledge with other civil society organizations through cooperation and support mechanisms.
International Cooperation and Solidarity
Our aim is to develop relationships and collaborations with NGOs that share common working areas such as peace, confrontation, and human rights in neighboring regions close to Turkey, including the Caucasus, the Middle East, and North Africa. Additionally, the center, in partnership with its sister organization Verein für Wahrheit, Gerechtigkeit und Gedächtnisarbeit, established in Berlin in 2018, conducts international activities and events targeting the European Commission, the European Union, and countries that are members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Our partnerships with institutions that work closely in areas similar to the Memory Justice and Memory Center's fields of operation continue in countries such as Argentina, Colombia, Bosnia, and Serbia, which have experienced similar conflict experiences.