Eda Seyhan

Eda was an IPCS Visiting Fellow and Convenor for 2021.

Eda Seyhan is an international human rights lawyer, researcher and activist, focused on policing, national security and racial justice. She has worked for Amnesty International, Open Society Foundations and ActionAid International, among other NGOs. Her work has included writing a leading guide to investigating racial profiling, researching human rights abuses in Turkey and Western Europe, and running a successful campaign to free a Syrian man unfairly convicted on terrorism charges. Eda has also been involved in political organising, from door-knocking to direct action, within a variety of movements, including anti-fascism, anti-racism and feminist. Most recently, Eda set up a project, COVID State Watch, monitoring state violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her writing has appeared in Al Jazeera, Critical Legal Thinking and the Journal of Human Rights Practice.

While at IPCS, Eda is researching the recent history of activism by leftist migrants and political refugees from Turkey in Melbourne, including their involvement in factory strikes, anti-fascist campaigns and anti-imperialist solidarity, and uncovering lessons from this history for diaspora and anti-racist politics today.

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