Yiğit Aksakoğlu is a human rights defender who serves as the Turkey Country Director for the Bernard van Leer Foundation, working on early childhood development. He was coordinating the Project Istanbul95, in collaboration with four municipal authorities in Istanbul, which consists of monitoring the health and social development of 480 new born babies and their families. He is also a former staff member of İstanbul Bilgi University’s NGO Research and Training Unit and Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation.
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.
