SDG 16

KHAS advances peaceful, just, and inclusive societies through its legal studies, human rights programs, and community outreach. Courses on human rights politics, gender and law, and contemporary legal theory equip students with the tools to analyze and promote social justice. The University regularly hosts seminars, workshops, and conferences on the rule of law, democratic governance, and ethical leadership. Collaborative research and public engagement initiatives contribute to policy discussions and strengthen institutional integrity in both local and international contexts.

16.1. Events

• Seminar: “Centennial of the Republic Symposium – The First Century and Future of the Legal Revolution” was held on 8-9-10 December 2023, organized by Kadir Has University Faculty of Law in collaboration with the Union of Turkish Bar Associations.[1]
• Panel: “The Legal Revolution of the Republic” was held on 30 October 2023.[2]
• Seminar: “Recent Developments in the Taxation, Accounting, and Auditing of Crypto Assets” was organized on 10 December 2023 by Kadir Has University Faculty of Law in collaboration with the Blockchain Turkey Platform’s Tax, Accounting, and Auditing Working Group.[3]
• Wednesday Conference: Prof. Dr. Ozan Erözden delivered a talk titled “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and Neuroscience” on 29 November 2023.[4]
• Conference: “The Ineffectiveness of the Right to Legal Remedies” was held on 18 October 2024, organized by Kadir Has University Faculty of Law in cooperation with the Public Law Scholars Platform.[5]
• Diplomacy Seminar Series – Security and Diplomacy: NATO, presented by Tacan İldem, was held on 21 October 2024.
• Diplomacy Seminar Series – Economic Diplomacy and the Role of Business: Speakers Hale Hatipoğlu and Nur Beler Levi participated on 11 November 2024.
• Diplomacy Seminar Series – Diplomacy in Europe and the EU: A lecture by Selim Yenel was held on 18 November 2024.
• Diplomacy Seminar Series – EU Diplomacy and EU-Turkey Relations: Delivered by Thomas Ossowski on 2 December 2024.
• Diplomacy Seminar Series – Diplomacy and Human Rights: Delivered by Ruhat Sena Akşener on 16 December 2024.
• Diplomacy Seminar Series – Diplomacy and Development: Building Bridges for Capacity Building: Presented by Umut Özdemir-Tsarouhas on 16 December 2024.
• EU Jean Monnet Summer School: “The EU and Hybrid Threats in the Wider Neighbourhood,” led by Sinem Akgül Açıkmeşe, was held from 4 to 15 September 2023.
• Faculty of Art and Design, in collaboration with Mordem Art and Ecological Life Association, held a Physical Actions Method Workshop with Zeynep Günsür Yüceil between 20-26 June 2023.
• Faculty of Art and Design, in collaboration with Mavi Kuş Solidarity, hosted a movement workshop and a storytelling dance performance for children in the Hatay Earthquake Zone by Gizem Aksu on 4-5 November 2023.[6]
• Faculty of Art and Design, in collaboration with Brave New World Producties, held a panel on 16 December 2023 featuring Gizem Aksu, discussing issues, challenges, and practices on gender in art with a focus on Turkey and the Netherlands.[7]
• Dr. Nilay Arat presented her paper “Accessibility of Public Services” at the Disabled Rights Conference I on 17 November 2023.

16.2. Projects

• Right of Access to Information (2023): KHAS adhered to the principle that access to information is a fundamental human right.
• Academic Open Access (2023): Dissemination of research outputs to society promoted transparency and supported access to knowledge.
• Right of Access to Information (2024): The University continued to uphold the principle that access to information is a human right.
• Open-Access Policies (2024): The visibility, accessibility, and sharing of scientific outputs were encouraged.
• Access to Cultural Heritage (2024): Key archives were made available to researchers through National Cultural Documentation initiatives.
• KHAS110 theoretical component included topics such as non-violent communication, social justice, community empowerment, and civic engagement.
• KHAS110 collaborated with the Hrant Dink Foundation to provide training and workshops on social justice, hate speech, inclusive language, and collective memory.
• Human Rights Research and Application Center was active in promoting and supporting human rights education and research. [8]
• TÜBİTAK 3501 – Career Development Program, led by Assist. Prof. Dr. Ayşe Başak Topaler, was titled “An Analysis of the Effects of External Shocks on the Establishment, Structure, and Performance of New Ventures.”
• Faculty of Art and Design | Unit: TÜBİTAK 1001 Project | “The Gender Dynamics of Skilled Migrant Women’s Labor Migration and Urban Life Experiences: The Case of Istanbul” (Program Code: 1001, Project No: 221K001), supervised by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ezgi Tuncer with bursary students Ela Gök, Liana Kuyumcuyan, and Sare Nur Avcı (Urban and Architectural Studies MA Program). Project period: 01.04.2022 – 01.11.2023. This research explored the socio-spatial dynamics shaping the migration, settlement, and urban life experiences of highly educated (skilled) migrants living and working in Istanbul. It examined the migration reasons and urban practices (housing, work, social life) of middle-class, transnational communities from both the Global North and South, highlighting that these educated migrants are not simply “expats” but also experience precarity due to economic crises, conflicts, and oppressive regimes. The project aimed to reveal discriminatory practices they face in Istanbul and contribute to new urban and legal policies to improve their living conditions.
• Artistic Educational Research Project | Boundary Crossing – Artistic Research in Context | 20.03.2023 – 12.05.2023 | Partners: HKU University of the Arts Utrecht – Glej Theatre, Ljubljana – Kadir Has University Theatre Department, Istanbul. This pilot project focused on interdisciplinary artistic production, encouraging young artists to diversify their creative methods and tools, foster collaboration across disciplines, and explore new thinking processes. A collective approach to working and creative exploration was emphasized.
• Artistic Educational Research Project | Boundary Crossing – Artistic Research in Context | 23.09.2024 – 18.10.2024 | Glej Theatre, Ljubljana, Slovenia, in collaboration with HKU University of the Arts Utrecht and Kadir Has University, Istanbul, launched the next phase of the Boundary Crossing project. Originally piloted in 2021, the project continues into 2025 as an experimental educational program linking young theatre makers from participating countries. “Boundary crossing” refers to crossing borders between countries, theatre practices, and individual thinking and working methods. The methodology aims to enable participants to develop their theatre-making practices through negotiation of multiple contexts, encouraging them to create and evaluate work from diverse perspectives, relationships, cultures, and roles.

16.3. Publications

• Acceptable ‘expats’ versus unwanted ‘Arabs’: Tracing hierarchies through everyday urban practices of skilled migrant women in Istanbul
  Author(s): Tuncer, E.
  Year: 2024
• Aesthetic Approach for Critical Sociology of Contemporary Communication Technology
  Author(s): Arda, B.
  Year: 2024
• The Influence of the Belgian Constitution on Ottoman Constitutional Law
  Author(s): Akad, M.
  Year: 2024
• Economic Policy Uncertainty and Climate Change: Evidence from CO2 Emission
  Author(s): Benlemlih, M. and Yavaş, Ç.
  Year: 2024
• Rethinking de facto autonomy? A multi-policy area approach and the regulatory policy process
  Author(s): Coban, M.
  Year: 2024
• Critically Queer Yet Politically Affirmative Engagements with Human Rights
  Author(s): Güner, R.
  Year: 2024
• DILEMMAS, PAINED FRUSTRATION, AND NEW POSSIBILITIES: Masculinities, violences, and disabilities
  Author(s): Myrttinen, H., Sunbuloglu, N., and Sikweyiya, Y.
  Year: 2024
• Pious people, patronage jobs, and the labor market: Turkey under Erdoğan’s AKP
  Author(s): Oyvat, C., Tekgüç, H., and Yagci, A.
  Year: 2024
• REFLECTIONS ON THE INTERNATIONAL NOISE AWARENESS DAY 2023 ACTIVITIES
  Author(s): Şaher, K., Şentop Dümen, A., Sezgin, H., Nas, S., Kelle, D., and Demiral, Y.
  Year: 2024
• Romantic Relationships in the Workplace: A Critical Approach to the Turkish Courts’ Case Law on the Employee’s Right to Respect for Private Life
  Author(s): Çatalkaya, D. and Heper, H.
  Year: 2024
• Emotions and norms in the Syrian refugee crisis: the comparative responses of the EU and Turkey
  Author(s): Ermihan, E. and Akgül-Açikmeşe, S.
  Year: 2024
• The positive association of education with the trust in science and scientists is weaker in highly corrupt countries
  Author(s): Alper, S., Yelbuz, B., Akkurt, S., and Yilmaz, O.
  Year: 2024
• Brand assets: a prerequisite to promoting a developing destination
  Author(s): Turgambekova, Z., Kozak, M., and Correia, A.
  Year: 2023
• (Non-)deport to Discipline: The Daily Life of Afghans in Turkey
  Author(s): Karadaǧ, S. and Sert, D.
  Year: 2023
• EXPERIENCES FROM IYS 2020, PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND AWARENESS ACTIVITIES IN TURKEY
  Author(s): Şaher, K., Sezgin, H., Şentop Dümen, A., Nas, S., Kulak, S., and Özçetin, Z.
  Year: 2023
• Political Engagement Through Visual Mediation: The Visuality of the Christchurch Attack and a Cross-Governmental Analysis of Performative Populist Responses
  Author(s): Arda, B.
  Year: 2023
• Citizenship, Media and Activism in Turkey during Gezi Park Protests
  Author(s): Yanardaǧoǧlu, E.
  Year: 2023
• Legal Aid Under Turkish Administrative Judicial Procedural Law
  Author(s): Arat, N.
  Year: 2023
• Concept of Legal Aid in Civil Litigation in Accordance with the Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights
  Author(s): Yardim, M.
  Year: 2023
• Punishing or Preventing? The Responsibility to Protect and the Wars in South Sudan
  Author(s): Frahm, O.
  Year: 2023
• Who receives clientelistic benefits? Social identity, relative deprivation, and clientelistic acceptance among Turkish voters
  Author(s): Yildirim, K.
  Year: 2023
• Repressed media and illiberal politics in Turkey: the persistence of fear
  Author(s): Akser, M. and Baybars, B.
  Year: 2023
• The political consequences of dependent financialization: Capital flows, crisis and the authoritarian turn in Turkey
  Author(s): Apaydin, F. and Coban, M.
  Year: 2023

16.4. Courses

• KHAS105 “Critical Thinking” – Justice Block
• POL 437 – Political Parties and Public Opinion (Spring 2024)
• POL 212 – Political Sociology (Spring 2024)
• KHAS 1708 – Democracy, Justice, and Revolutions (Spring 2023)
• KHAS 1720 – Power, People, States, and Constitutions (Spring 2023)
• LAW 313 – Human Rights Law (Compulsory)

Course Description: Meaning and historical development of human rights, human rights theory, international human rights monitoring systems, application procedures to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), ECtHR case law, prohibition of discrimination, right to equality, freedom of expression, freedom of association, religious freedoms, the right to vote and be elected, the right to education, minority rights, and human rights in the EU. [9]

• LAW 336 – Tax Policy (Elective)

Course Description: This course focuses on the main and subsidiary objectives of modern public economics, financing public expenditures through taxes, the use of taxation as a tool for income distribution, and the role of taxes in addressing economic instabilities. The course has two main parts. The first part covers the basic and subsidiary functions of public economics, the role of the state in the economy, fundamental public finance concepts, and the position of tax policy within fiscal policy. The second part examines tax policy from an international perspective, addressing contemporary issues in international tax policy. [10]

• LAW 452 – International Tax Law (Elective)

Course Description: International taxation, court decisions rendered by various OECD member states, and a comparative analysis of international tax law policies implemented by different OECD member countries. [11]

• KH 518 – Cultural Rights

Course Description: This course first explores the emergence of minority rights and their implementation by various judicial bodies. Secondly, it examines Turkey’s position within the framework of the international minority rights regime. [12]

• ARCH503 | Pre-Thesis Seminar | Pre-Thesis Seminar, ARCH503-S01 | SABRİ GÖKMEN – DİDEM KILIÇKIRAN – UFUK SOYOZ – DOĞU DURGUN – EZGİ TUNCER – GÜRBEY HIZ | FRI: 19:00 – 19:40 | B-302
• ARCH511 | Readings on Space and Society | Readings on Space and Society, ARCH511 | DİDEM KILIÇKIRAN | TUE: 10:30 – 13:20 | B-516
• ARCH518 | Space, Politics, and Power | Space, Politics, and Power, ARCH518-S01 | EZGİ TUNCER
• KHS361 | Contemporary Theories of Rights | Contemporary Theories of Rights, KHS36-S01 | REMZİ ORKUN GÜNER | FRI: 18:00 – 20:50 | B-401
• KH537 | Current Issues in Criminal Law | Current Issues in Criminal Law, KH537-S0 | TUĞRUL BAYAZIT KATOĞLU | THU: 18:00 – 20:50 | D120(MS)
• LW564 | Administrative Jurisdiction Law in Court Decisions | Administrative Jurisdiction Law in Court Decisions | NİLAY ARAT | THU: 18:00 – 20:50 | B-302.1
• LW570 | Gender and Human Rights | Gender and Human Rights, LW57 | REYDA ERGÜN UMUROĞLU | MON: 18:00 – 20:50 | B-203
• KH518 | Cultural Rights | Cultural Rights, KH518-S01 | OLGUN AKBULUT | MON: 18:00 – 20:50 | D-119
• KH522 | Current Issues in Criminal Procedure Law | Current Issues in Criminal Procedure Law | TUĞRUL BAYAZIT KATOĞLU | TUE: 18:00 – 20:50 | D-119
• KHS361 | Contemporary Theories of Rights | Contemporary Theories of Rights, KHS36*1-S01 | REMZİ ORKUN GÜNER | WED: 18:00 – 20:50 | B-323
• LW537 | Interpretation of the European Court of Human Rights | Interpretation of the European Court of Human Rights | ESRA ÜNAL | THU: 18:00 – 20:50 | D-114 | SDG 10, 16, 17

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/C0UdLxEqwoj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==  

[2] https://www.instagram.com/p/Cy-_c0XsalY/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==  

[3] https://www.instagram.com/p/C0RXlqwqEOe/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==  

[4] https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz_fB6mq0tS/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[5] https://www.instagram.com/p/C_fqIY8MZMB/

[6] https://www.instagram.com/p/CzUQsBKIXJB/?igsh=NXUybGJtbTdnbjdh

[7] https://www.fotoexpositie.nl/exposities/gender_matters.html#:~:text=16%20december%202023%20(14.30%20uur.,en%20begint%200om%2014.30%20uur

[8] https://www.khas.edu.tr/law-arastirma-merkezleri/

[9] https://bologna.khas.edu.tr/ders/30004243/program/50000736

[10] https://bologna.khas.edu.tr/ders/30004462/program/50000736

[11] https://bologna.khas.edu.tr/ders/30004438/program/50000736

[12] https://bologna.khas.edu.tr/ders/30000436/program/50258384