International Solidarity with the Kurdish Freedom Movement: Navigating Contradictions Through Diplomacy

One of the most heated debates in the field of human rights is whether they can be a force for emancipation or in fact reinforce existing structures of power. This project will be an ethnographic study of the UK Kurdish Solidarity Network in London including participant observation and qualitative interviews with activists. It will focus specifically on the ways that the movement employs human rights narratives and practices and its relationships to human rights institutions such as INGOs, and even to some limited extent with legal institutions and the UN. Examination of this relationship can provide a great deal of insight into the contradictory role of human rights in regard to hegemonic and counter-hegemonic forces. Moreover such a study can also help illuminate understandings of contemporary anti-systemic discourse and practice.
UPDATE to fieldwork August 2023: Daniel's project looks at the way activists in the Kurdish diaspora and solidarity activists in Europe engage with European civil society and state institutions to build solidarity with the Kurdish Freedom Movement. This involves studying transnational Kurdish solidarity networks in three key sites: London, Berlin and Brussels. These important locations for the kinds of solidarity activism and lobbying which this project is researching. The proposed research involves in-depth qualitative semi structured interviews with activists and ethnographic participant observation during relevant conferences and events held by activists. In person interviews are necessary due to the in-depth and qualitative nature of the interviews and the ethnographic importance of visiting the sites, including Kurdish cultural centres, and the offices of Kurdish NGOs and political organisations. Activists are also most comfortable with in-person interviews. In terms of overseas locations, undertaking interviews in both Berlin and Brussels will be vital for the project. Germany is home to one of the largest Kurdish diaspora populations in Europe, which has a long history of the kind of political mobilisations and engagements with civil society studied by this project. Berlin is the centre of much of these engagements with key political and legal institutions based there. Brussels is key given the presence of various international and European-level institutions. It is vital to conduct this fieldwork over this summer period so that Daniel will have research material to analyse for his upcoming 3rd Year annual review in Lent Term 2024. This will involve interviews conducted during two trips. The first of these will be to Berlin from 27 July to 1 August 2023 where interviews with Kurdish NGOs, political representatives, solidarity activists and human rights lawyers will be undertaken. This will include one interview in Frankfurt with the representative of a Kurdish human rights NGO. This trip has been approved by LSE health and safety and will be covered by LSE's travel insurance. The second trip, to Brussels, is planned for late August 2023. During the period Daniel will conduct interviews with Kurdish NGO's political representatives, solidarity activists and human rights lawyers in Brussels. These trips will be an essential part of his fields work, without these in depth qualitative interviews the research will not be possible.