Orouba Barakat
Orouba Barakat was a prominent Syrian human rights defender and producer of numerous documentaries detailing torture by authorities and prison massacres committed by the Assad regime. Her daughter Halla Barakat worked as a human rights defender and editor for the pro-opposition website Orient News which has issued reports on secret detention centres in Syria. After leaving Syria at the outbreak of the civil war in 2011, they traveled to Britain and the United Arab Emirates before settling in Istanbul, Turkey.
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.
