Through the Lens of Freedom: Constitutional Rights in a Changing World

The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom's Turkey Office and the Human Rights Academy successfully organized the annual competition of artificial intelligence and photography-type visuals. The competition, focusing on the current state of constitutional rights, attracted great interest and 13 works were selected by the jury from over 200 entries to be exhibited.

Before the exhibition, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Ankara organized a panel discussion shedding light on the current state of constitutional freedoms in changing circumstances. The event titled “Through the Lens of Freedom: Constitutional Rights in a Changing World” discussed the importance and current position of constitutional rights under changing conditions at the local and global level.

The program started with the opening speech of Henning Simon, Minister Counsellor of the Embassy of Germany in Ankara. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the German Constitution, Simon spoke about the importance of protecting the fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by constitutions.

Mr. Simon's speech was followed by remarks by Beate Apelt, Permanent Representative of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Turkey, and Elif Menderes, founder of the Human Rights Academy. They spoke about the importance of the German Constitution's infrastructure for the protection of human dignity, freedom and fundamental rights, how and to what extent these values are under threat today, and the role of the event in highlighting these themes.

Afterward, Professor Dr. Alexander Thiele from BSP Faculty of Business and Law delivered his speech titled “The Importance of Fundamental Rights in Germany”. Prof. Thiele gave valuable information on the contributions of the rights and freedom-oriented constitution, which is built on the civil consciousness in Germany, to the understanding of a state that primarily serves individuals.

The discussion part of the panel was moderated by Zeynep Gürcanlı with the participation of Prof. Dr. Alexander Thiele, Prof. Dr. Selin Esen from Ankara University and Dr. Volkan Aslan from Istanbul University. In this section, in addition to the protection of fundamental rights in constitutions, the topics covered were expanded to include local agendas by including the relationship between developments in the country and the constitutional context.

In this section, the protection of fundamental rights in constitutions and the local contexts regarding Turkey are discussed. The importance of constitutional coverage of fundamental rights and the effectiveness of the methods of these constitutional arrangements in the protection of these rights were also discussed. New areas emerging in a changing world and new rights arising from these areas were also among the topics explained by the experts.

The discussion also focused on the expansion of the subject of fundamental rights beyond human beings to the environment and animals and related developments. Dr. Volkan Aslan gave the Ecuadorian Constitution as an example of the implementation of the expanded scope of rights and referred to the issue by saying that “human beings can live in dignity only by ensuring the dignity of those around them”.

The panel ended with a Q&A session that allowed participants to further explore the intricacies of the topic and exchange views. This session offered participants the opportunity to find answers to their questions and get expert opinions on the subject. After the panel, the winning works were exhibited at a reception. Participants had the opportunity to chat with the winners about the context of constitutional rights in today's changing world related to their respective works.