Northern Justice Watch

Fighting crimes against humanity and seeking justice for the victims of atrocity crimes

[Northern Justice Watch @NJusticeWatch]

CASE UPDATE - The Shildon Case: The Hague. After eight days of substantive hearings at the Hague District Court, proceedings in the Shildon case formally closed on May 26, 2026. The judges now deliberate.

This case is about more than one defendant. It asks whether national courts will use the full framework of international criminal law to prosecute the most serious crimes, and whether sexual violence, committed systematically against a civilian population, will be recognized as what it is: a crime against humanity.

The verdict is expected on June 9, 2026. The proceedings can be followed via livestream in English, Arabic, and Dutch.

#Syria #TheHague #CrimesAgainstHumanity #JusticeForSurvivors #ShildonCase #InternationalLaw

[Northern Justice Watch @NJusticeWatch]

A TURNING POINT IN THE HAGUE: For the first time in the Netherlands, a court is hearing charges of sexual violence as a crime against humanity.

The Shildon case: a Syrian suspect, 25 charges, 9 named victims. Allegations rooted in Salamiyah, Syria (2013–2014).

Verdict expected 9 June 2026. ⚖️

This case is about more than one defendant. It asks whether sexual violence, committed systematically against civilians, will be recognized as what it is: a crime against humanity.

#Syria #TheHague #CrimesAgainstHumanity #justiceforsurvivors

[Northern Justice Watch @NJusticeWatch]

A new report by the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project (TLSP) documents what many have long feared: Türkiye’s judiciary has been systematically reshaped into an instrument of political control. This isn’t just about one court or one case, it’s about the collapse of an entire system meant to protect people from the state.

Following the 2016 coup attempt, over 4,000 judges and prosecutors were dismissed, while nearly 10,000 replacements were recruited through processes the TLSP described as lacking transparency and favouring candidates aligned with the ruling coalition. 

The consequences are concrete and ongoing. The report cites Turkey’s repeated failure to implement European Court of Human Rights rulings, including in the cases of Selahattin Demirtaş and Osman Kavala, as evidence that judicial capture isn’t theoretical. It has real names and real prison cells attached to it.

This matters beyond Türkiye’s borders. When a government can use terrorism charges against someone for using an app, attending a protest, or holding a bank account, the line between law and persecution has already been erased. That’s not justice.

#HumanRights #Turkey #RuleOfLaw #HumanRightsViolations

[NCCA @nccadvocacy]

A new report alleges that Türkiye’s judiciary has been transformed into a tool of political control under President Erdogan, raising renewed concerns about judicial independence and the rule of law.

The report documents changes to judicial institutions, appointment processes, and disciplinary mechanisms, arguing that courts have increasingly been used to target critics, opposition figures, journalists, and individuals linked to the Hizmet Movement.

The findings are raising serious concerns about the separation of powers and the impartiality of the justice system, while highlighting a broader pattern of political influence over the judiciary and underscoring concerns over due process, fair trial rights, and democratic governance in Türkiye.

#HumanRightsViolations #Turkey #Turkish

https://t.co/R6s98Psigw

[Northern Justice Watch @NJusticeWatch]

Human rights protection doesn’t come with a prominence requirement. Tuğba Koç deserves protection and so does everyone facing persecution, regardless of how “significant” a government decides their case is. Deporting her is not a technicality. It’s a risk to her life.

Sign the petition: https://t.co/dXyBO9b1dQ

#HumanRights #RefugeeRights #turkey

[Şerif Aydin @serifcanada1]

Stop the Deportation of Tuğba Koç – She Faces Immediate Arrest and Persecution in Turkey - Sign the Petition! https://t.co/bI7lTBXuKi via @CdnChange

[Northern Justice Watch @NJusticeWatch]

This week in Montreal, the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal opened its 57th session: and the first ever focused on Canada. For a few days, seven international judges are hearing evidence on the deaths of Indigenous children in Canada’s residential schools, unmarked burials, forced sterilizations of Indigenous women and girls, and decades of institutional silence.

The PPT’s verdict won’t be legally binding. But it will create a permanent, public, expert-reviewed record of what Canada’s own institutions have refused to confront. Survivors will have their truth heard on the international stage.

Reconciliation cannot replace accountability. Follow the hearings: https://t.co/NMkNZqdN5U

#EveryChildMatters #PermanentPeoplesTribunal #IndigenousRights #ResidentialSchools #truthandreconciliation

[Northern Justice Watch @NJusticeWatch]

Exile should never mean living in fear. Authoritarian governments increasingly use intimidation, surveillance, smear campaigns, and international pressure to target critics beyond their borders. The impact reaches families, communities, and entire diasporas.

Awareness is the first step toward accountability.

#Censorship #HumanRights #SpeakUp #Justice #Freedom

[Northern Justice Watch @NJusticeWatch]

Save the date: NJW’s Fundraising Social Event is officially happening! Join us for an afternoon of awareness, advocacy, and action for justice. Sponsorship opportunities are also available! More info on our website.

🗓 Saturday, June 13, 2026
🕐 1:00 – 4:00 PM EST
📍 Bosphorus Turkish Cuisine (4205 Keele St #16, North York)
🎟 Register on Eventbrite (link in bio), scan the QR code on the flyer, or click this link: https://t.co/SEVlbvdPti

This event is In support of:
⚖️ Taking legal action against hate speech
📚 Creating an education campaign for girls
🕯️ Locating missing Yazidi women and girls

#fundraisingevent #accesstojustice #HumanRights #justiceforall

[Northern Justice Watch @NJusticeWatch]

To everyone celebrating around the world - from Northern Justice Watch, we wish you a blessed and meaningful Eid!

On this day, we hold space for all who cannot celebrate freely: those displaced from their homes, separated from loved ones, or living under the weight of injustice. Let us have the courage to keep pursuing a world rooted in dignity for all!

#eidmubarak #eidaladha

[Northern Justice Watch @NJusticeWatch]

A Turkish court has just ousted Özgür Özel as leader of the main opposition party, annulling the 2023 congress that elected him. This isn’t a legal ruling. It’s a political strike against the only opposition with momentum. When courts become tools to remove rivals, you’re not watching a democracy in crisis, you’re watching a democracy being dismantled in real time.

#Türkiye #Turkey #Democracy #ÖzgürÖzel #HumanRights

[Reuters @Reuters]

A Turkish court effectively ousted the main opposition leader, Ozgur Ozel, annulling the 2023 party congress that elected him chairman. The case was seen as a test of Turkey's shaky balance between democracy and autocracy https://t.co/n133BhHWi0

[Northern Justice Watch @NJusticeWatch]

Prof. Rahile Dawut - a respected scholar of Uyghur folklore and oral tradition turns 60 today. Not at home with her family. Not in her classroom. In a Chinese prison, serving a secret life sentence after years of enforced disappearance. Her “crime” was her life’s work: documenting Uyghur shrines, songs, and customs before they could be erased. When a state imprisons the people who preserve a culture, the goal is not justice. The goal is erasure.

#stopuyghurgenocide #uyghur #uyghurgenocide

[Stop Uyghur Genocide @UyghurStop]

Today, renowned Uyghur scholar Prof. Rahile Dawut turns 60 in a Chinese prison, separated from her family after a secret life sentence. Her only “crime” was preserving Uyghur culture. We can not stay silent. Demand her immediate release and justice for Uyghurs.

@MahmutRahima

[Northern Justice Watch @NJusticeWatch]

The Netherlands has officially recognized what diaspora communities have been saying for years: China’s repression doesn’t stop at its borders. Dutch lawmakers just passed a motion to protect Uyghurs living in the Netherlands from surveillance, intimidation, and harassment by the Chinese state: including pressure on their families back home.

This is what taking transnational repression seriously looks like.
Canada has a Uyghur diaspora too. So do the US, UK, Germany, Australia, and Türkiye.

https://t.co/qRNJonKyew

#Uyghurs #HumanRights #Netherlands

[Northern Justice Watch @NJusticeWatch]

Nearly 5 years is how long Afghan girls have been locked out of classrooms: the only country in the world that bans girls from secondary education. Every day this continues, the world becomes complicit. Education is not negotiable.

#LetAfghanGirlsLearn #afghaneducation #genderequality #education

[Fereshta Abbasi @FereshtaAbbasi]

In Afghanistan today, three in four people cannot meet their basic needs, according to the United Nations. Unemployment is rife, healthcare struggling and the aid that once provided the basics for millions has dwindled to a fraction of what it once was.

https://t.co/zrtXTYD9MT

[Yalda Hakim @SkyYaldaHakim]

Day 1,697 since millions of women were forced to live under a gender apartheid in #Afghanistan.

Let Afghan girls grow and give back to their communities. Their potential and freedom should never be restricted.

#LetAfghanGirlsLearn

[Northern Justice Watch @NJusticeWatch]

We’re opening another round of applications for NJW’s Co-op & Internship Program! Two impactful teams. Real-world experience. Fully remote.

⚖️ Justice & Accountability Team: for Law, Political Science, International Relations, and Criminology students. Work on legal research, case documentation, policy analysis, and human rights monitoring.

💛 Victim Support Team: for Psychology, Social Work, Counseling, Human Services, and Sociology students. Contribute to victim outreach, trauma-informed support, and community programming.

📩 Apply: [email protected]
Subject line: Co-op/Internship Application — (Your Name) — Preferred Team
🔗 More info: https://t.co/wI8yf11uO9

#InternshipOpportunity #CoopOpportunity #HumanRights #LawStudents #Psychology

[Şerif Aydin @serifcanada1]

More than 5,600 Yazidi women and girls were abducted by ISIS. Eleven years later, 2624 are still missing.

ISIS was not only a local threat. People from dozens of countries joined it — including from Canada. That makes this a global responsibility.

Some Yazidi women may still be trapped in or around al-Hol camp in North Syria, where thousands of ISIS-linked people are held.

The wolf and the lamb may have been kept in the same cage for years.

I saw parents in Kurdistan still searching for their daughters, and children still waiting for their mothers.

Does this not disturb you?

If ISIS was international, the solution must also be international.

Canada must do more.

#yazidi #girls #yezidi

[Northern Justice Watch @NJusticeWatch]

Journalists charged under vague “disinformation laws.” Exiled journalists abroad face surveillance, harassment, and fabricated charges.

This is not the behavior of a democracy. It is the playbook of a government that has run out of legitimate ways to hold power. Restoring Türkiye’s democracy will require coordinated action: from civil society, opposition movements, and international allies willing to name what is happening for what it is: a sustained assault on press freedom, judicial independence, and political dissent. The path back is long. But silence is not an option.

Read more: https://t.co/61hH5ChfZl

[Northern Justice Watch @NJusticeWatch]

Press freedom isn’t just about journalists. It’s about the rest of us. The people who only know what’s happening because someone risked everything to report it. The Yazidi genocide. The Uyghur camps. The unmarked graves at residential schools. The political tension in Türkiye. We know these stories because journalists refused to look away.

Every story buried becomes a future atrocity unprosecuted. Every reporter intimidated becomes a community left in the dark. We honor the journalists who keep showing up.

#WorldPressFreedomDay #PressFreedom #HumanRights

[Advocates of Silenced Turkey @silencedturkey]

Under the guise of a “disinformation law”, which carries up to 3 years in prison in #Turkey, at least 83 journalists have been charged 114 times over disinformation. All possible means are being used to silence critics.

#WorldPressFreedomDay

https://t.co/tiP8jP5KAW

[Şerif Aydin @serifcanada1]

Great meeting with Dr. Yael Danieli and Shay in New York. Thank you for the kind dinner invitation and the thoughtful conversation — really appreciated the chance to exchange ideas on trauma, mental health.

#mentalhealth #trauma #newyork

[Northern Justice Watch @NJusticeWatch]

When Mesut Özil spoke out against China’s persecution of Uyghurs, the response wasn’t solidarity: it was silence, and then exile. The cost of speaking truth is real. So is the cost of staying silent. In a world where billion-dollar leagues bend to authoritarian markets, we are reminded that human rights are not negotiable. Not for trophies. Not for contracts. Not for access to a market.

Six years later, the camps are still there. The forced labor and genocide is still happening.

#Uyghurs #FreeUyghurs #MesutÖzil #HumanRights #SportsAndPolitics #NeverSilent #EndUyghurForcedLabor

[Voice of Uyghurs(维吾尔人之声) @voiceofuyghur12]

While the sports world stayed silent on China’s Uyghur crisis to protect profits, Mesut Özil spoke out. He was isolated and kicked out of the Arsenal squad, but he refused to back down. A powerful reminder that human rights are bigger than any game. 🛑⚽️ #UyghurRights #Ozil

[Şerif Aydin @serifcanada1]

Dünkü insan hakları ile ilgili panel şimdiye kadar en fazla ilgiyle takip ettiğim çalışmalardan biri oldu.

insan hakları avukatı sevgili @TobyMendel Toby Mendel uluslararası hukukun çerçevesini çizdi, sevgili Mehmet Efe Çaman @derinrejim Türkiye rejiminin Kürtler, Aleviler ve cemaat gibi toplumlara uyguladığı baskıları örnekleri ile anlattı.
Film yapımcısı sevgili Joanne Hodge @hodgesjoanne neyin adalet olup neyin olmadığını, resmi adalet kavramının tek başına yeterli olmadı��ını anlattı.

Önümüzdeki aylarda yapmayı düşündüğümüz gençlik formunun konusu olan “Damgalanmadan Dayanışmaya” konusunun çalıştığı gibi oldu denebilir.

Emeği geçen NJW @NJusticeWatch tüm çalışanları başta olmak üzere, katılan konuşmacılar ve seyircilere yürekten teşekkür ediyorum.

#adalet #alevi #yazidi #tigray #kurdish

[Efe Çaman @derinrejim]

Çok verimli bir seminer oldu!