Hanifi Barış
Hanifi Barış is a lawyer and academic, who has also worked in human rights. He is a member of Academics for Peace and signed the 2016 peace petition “We will not be a party to this crime!”. The human rights defender drew public attention for representing a famous conscientious objector who was sentenced to prison for his decision. In the same case, he also defended his client's right to represent himself in Kurdish, which was refused by the court. Hanifi Barış was practising law as a private attorney in Turkey prior to his arrest.
Human rights defenders (HRDs) in Turkey have been subjected to judicial harassment, including criminal prosecution, violent attacks, threats, surveillance, prolonged arbitrary detention, and ill-treatment. In the aftermath of an attempted coup in July 2016, the environment for the work of HRDs deteriorated even further.
