Distinguished human rights jurist to speak February 27

Judge Riza Türmen will speak on "Democracy, Terrorism, and Human Rights" at Skidmore on Tuesday, February 27. The talk, sponsored by the International Affairs Program, will be at 8 p.m. in Davis Auditorium. It is free and open to the public. 

Türmen has been a judge to the European Court of Human Rights since 1998. The court was established in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. In 2006, the court rendered 1,560 judgments on human rights violations.

The speaker addressed the delicate balance implied in the title of his talk in the summer 2002 issue of Turkish Policy Quarterly. "It is important that we respect human rights and the rule of law not only in good times but also in terrible times, because we are battling against terrorism so that we can maintain a society in which we enjoy individual rights and freedoms, the rule of law, goals which we cherish and terrorists abhor," Türmen wrote, adding that "to discard those values, devalues us too."

Born in Istanbul, Türmen attended an English high school and graduated from Istanbul University Faculty of Law in 1964. He earned a doctorate in political science at the University of Ankara in 1973 and a master of laws from McGill University in 1980.

In 1969, Türmen joined the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and began service as First Secretary at the Turkish Permanent Mission to the United Nations. He was assigned to the Turkish embassy in Islamabad in 1974 and went on to serve in several key diplomatic posts, including Ambassador of Turkey to Singapore in 1985-89 and to Switzerland in 1994-96.

Prior to joining the European Court of Human Rights, he was the Turkish Ambassador to the Council of Europe.