CFIC’s Human Rights Chair challenges Turkey’s blasphemy laws at the UN Human Rights Council.
On March 17, 2026, Emir Onur Romano Cilek — Human Rights Chair of the Centre for Inquiry Canada — addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva by video, speaking on behalf of Humanists International and Ateizm Derneği (the Association of Atheism Turkey). His message was one too few are willing to say plainly: Turkey is not the secular democracy it claims to be. It is a state that criminalizes disbelief.
The statement was delivered at the 34th meeting of the 61st session of the Human Rights Council, during the general debate under Item 4. Ateizm Derneği holds a distinction that should give the Council pause: it is the only legally recognized atheist human rights organization in the Muslim world. The statement can be viewed on UN Web TV beginning at the 3:33 mark.
Cilek built his case around Article 216-3 of the Turkish Penal Code — a blasphemy provision that, as he put it, is “a blasphemy law dressed as justice” — and backed it with a damning catalogue of real people, real charges, and real consequences.
Ateizm Derneği’s website remains blocked by the state. In 2014, the organization’s founder Onur Romano himself faced politically motivated criminal convictions. In 2017, board member Barbaros Şansal was mob-attacked at Istanbul Airport and subsequently jailed under Article 216 — while 12 of his 13 attackers faced no meaningful legal consequences. In 2024, Turkey’s own state religious authority, the Diyanet, filed charges against linguist Sevan Nişanyan for mocking the call to prayer online. That same year, Ateizm Derneği volunteer and lawyer Feyza Altun was arrested, placed under a travel ban, and given a nine-month suspended sentence — her offence: criticizing Sharia law on social media. In July 2025, the editor of the satirical magazine Leman was pulled from a plane in handcuffs over a cartoon, with President Erdoğan personally vowing he would “answer for it.” And in 2026, the Education Minister launched formal investigations against 168 writers, artists, and academics — not for inciting violence, not for hate speech, but for signing a letter in support of secularism.
“Not for violence. Not for hate. For words. For drawings. For signatures,” Cilek told the Council.
The demands were direct: repeal Article 216, and guarantee equal legal protection for the right not to believe. As he closed: “Apostasy is not a crime. Disbelief is not a threat. Silence from this Council would be.”
Turkey exercised its right of reply during the session, as did several other states whose records came under scrutiny from civil society speakers throughout the day’s proceedings.
CFIC is proud that our Human Rights Chair carried this message to the world’s foremost human rights body. The statement is a reminder of why international advocacy matters — and why the work of protecting freedom of conscience, including the freedom to have no faith at all, remains urgent and unfinished. We extend our solidarity to the members and volunteers of Ateizm Derneği, who continue this work at real personal cost.
The full session recording is available at UN Web TV https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k19/k197xoi18k. Cilek’s statement begins at 3:33.
The Centre for Inquiry Canada advances science, reason, and secular values. To support our human rights advocacy work, visit cficanada.ca.