DELEGATES attending the UN Habitat II conference in Istanbul yesterday began a lie in and called for immediate action against human rights violations. This followed the alleged arrests of hundreds of peaceful protesters.
Hundreds of Turkish citizens and some international NGO members were beaten, detained and arrested in violation of international law", the international non governmental organisations, meeting in parallel with UN members at the two week summit, said in a statement.
The detentions took place on Saturday after riot police broke up a demonstration of 50 to 60 people campaigning for those who have gone missing while in custody.
At the garden at Taskisla technical university where the NGO forum is being held, delegates launched a petition and issued a declaration calling for "the responsible authorities to cease and desist from human rights abuses".