Liberty Is Our Right

Liberty is our Right/Train is Freedom

In 2008, Hürriyet's 60th anniversary coincided with the 60th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights by United Nations; so Hürriyet decided to have "human rights" as the main theme of its anniversary celebrations.

In order to remind people of the concept of rights and inform them on how to use their rights, Hürriyet formed a partnership with Turkish State Railways, which produced the "Liberty is Our Right/Train is Freedom" project. The Hürriyet-Liberty Train was to visit 45 cities and towns of Turkey along the railroad track.

Composed of 13 cars, this 340 meter-long Hürriyet-Liberty Train's journey started on July 1st, 2008 from Kars and ended in Edirne within 45 days. The Turkish State Railways was the project partner; and parties from the public sector, private sector and civil society such as the Amnesty International took part, as well.

The Hürriyet-Liberty Train team explained the concept of rights to the people they met, informed them on their rights; and they made those people's voices on human rights issues heard through newspapers.

The train was welcomed by festive crowds; local officials and NGO members visited the train and contributed their views and opinions.

The program was designed to include Akbank Children Theater's "Tale in a Tale" play and workshops for children, the Hürriyet exhibition showing the newspaper's history under the scope of human rights, and rock bands concerts.

The team of Hürriyet's "No To Domestic Violence!" campaign organized seminars on how to fight against violence and prepared a report on violence and human rights for every city. Konda Research Company conducted a survey on female city dwellers' perception of rights.

The journey was photographed from all angles by the faculty members and students of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Department of Photography, and was filmed by a documentary team.

The memoirs of the train team, the survey results, the photo album and the train documentary was made public to spread this campaign's influence more.

The newspaper continued the journey in 2009 with a richer content. As the UN celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2009, the Train team chose to focus on children's rights in its 2nd year. Between September 9 and October 29, the train visited 34 cities and 8 towns from İzmir to İstanbul, this time, to increase public awareness on children's rights.

The Train team, Amnesty International, the Coca Cola Life Plus Youth Program, Fişek Institute, Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool (TCIP), Child Abuse Prevention Platform and the ‘No to Domestic Violence' Campaign team all organized plays, exhibitions, seminars, talks and trainings for the visitors educating about children's rights.

Eight free concert events took place within the scope of the project. Famous singer Ajda Pekkan was in Hasankeyf to draw public attention for preventing the construction of Ilısu Dam, which could have put this historic site under water. Pekkan's concert was attended by almost 10,000 people.

The 2009 Journey of the Train team was photographed and shot by the academicians and students of Kültür University and aired live on www.hurriyettreni.org.