TGEU Countries: Turkey ProTrans in Turkey K emal Ördek is the founding chair of Red Umbrella Sexual Health and Human Rights Association (Red Umbrella), which is a trans- and sex-workers’ rights NGO based in Ankara, Turkey. Kemal has managed projects monitoring and documenting violence and discrimination against trans people, providing legal aid to sex-worker victims of human-rights violations, advocating and lobbying for the enhancement of the legal and de facto situation of registered brothel workers and providing capacity-building for sex workers and trans people on sexual and reproductive health. The ProTrans project has helped us improve our capacity to monitor human-rights violations against trans people in Turkey. Using the tools we have produced within the scope of the project has enabled us to carry out systematic advocacy and lobbying while mobilising the trans community to pursue their rights through legal channels. P + 88 + roTrans has been a crucial project for Red Umbrella, use of this support to learn how to use the legal system. as it has enabled the organisation to systematically Many trans people, especially trans women who do sex monitor human-rights violations against trans people work, are not able to use the legal system due to a lack in Turkey. Transphobic violence often goes unreported of economic means and information on how and where and undocumented. ProTrans has provided Red Um- to file complaints against perpetrators of violence. Red brella with tools to document cases of transphobic vi- Umbrella, with the support of four lawyers, has provid- olence and use them in advocacy work at visibility- and ed legal advice to survivors while assisting them in filing awareness-raising events and in human-rights reports. complaints and following up on their cases. Within the scope of the project, the organisation provid- We have produced a brochure that we used in home vis- ed legal aid to survivors of violence. It was a very impor- its to trans people in order to inform them about the pro- tant aspect of the project, and several trans people made ject and what they can do to access our organisation, our + 89 +