On 10 December 2023, it will be 75 years since the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Despite this, hardly a day goes by when human rights are not systematically violated in Kurdistan and other places around the world.

The Turkish prison island of Imrali and the solitary confinement of  Abdullah Öcalan, the foremost theorist and leader of the Kurdish freedom movement, represent an extreme case. Abdullah Öcalan has been in solitary confinement in Turkey for over 24 years and has been cut off from any means of communication with the outside world. This also isolates his political ideas and their possible implementation in a peace process and in the Kurdish movement's struggle for freedom.

It is impossible to rely on the established institutions for human rights work and against torture in custody, such as the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture CPT, the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights. Despite numerous requests and available information, they have not fulfilled their obligation to intervene against the unlawful practice of isolation, which is considered torture, and which includes cutting off all contact with the outside world, his lawyers and relatives.

In order to break the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan, a call was issued by the campaign for the Freedom of Abdullah Öcalan to organize the Öcalan Books Day on International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2023. The freedom of Abdullah Öcalan also means that a political solution in the Kurdish society's struggle for freedom can prevail instead of isolation, repression and war.

The organizers wrote: "Abdullah Öcalan's writings and his political philosophy are discussed and applied by social forces worldwide, despite his isolation and defamation by ruling states. These ideas inspire intellectuals, free thinkers, scientists, workers, activists, artists, trade unionists, social movements, politicians, families and entire societies.

Since the democratic awakening of the so-called Arab Spring, an autonomous, self-governing social system based on the ideas of Abdullah Öcalan has been emerging in northern and eastern Syria. The foundation of these ideas is based on the three pillars of women liberation, ecology and radical democracy. The Kurdish freedom movement has not only democratically organized and politically educated Kurdish society in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran as well as in the diaspora, especially in Europe. Far beyond this, the political philosophy and the example of the Kurdish movement are having an impact on people regaining hope for free-democratic changes and uniting and politically organizing against fragmentation and isolation.

With the political philosophy of the Kurdish movement developed by Abdullah Öcalan, we can regain hope in the possibility of a democratic social system. This process of profound democratization and dissolution of the relationships of domination between genders, between different social groups and in relation to the earth's resources can be given great enrichment and new impetus. If he can be freed from solitary confinement, the political situation will have changed to such an extent that a Kurdish solution can become tangible, the release of Öcalan is the necessary precondition for a peace process."

The call said: "Öcalan’s prison writings are a stunning vision of a freedom movement centred on women’s liberation, democracy, and ecology. Öcalan helped reinvigorate the Kurdish freedom movement by providing a revolutionary path forward with what is undoubtedly the furthest-reaching definition of democracy the world has ever seen. “Beyond State, Power and Violence” and especially his five-volume Manifesto of Democratic Civilization are a breath-taking research into life without the state and the Kurdish freedom movement, and a vision of a democratic-ecological society which is also offering a fresh and indispensable perspective on the quest for a new socialism. Öcalan’s calls for non-hierarchical forms of democratic social organization deserve the careful attention of anyone interested in constructive social thought or rebuilding society along feminist and ecological lines."

The call added: "In this sense, we as the campaign for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan call on all publishers, writers, booksellers, educators, students, workers, and all struggling people to join us on the Öcalan Books Day, December 10, 2023, under the slogan “Thoughts that break through the iron bars - you can't imprison ideas!” in protest against the isolation in Imrali and spread the liberation ideas of the prison writings.

#Take a stance against the isolation in Imrali, read a book from Öcalan!"

Find here all publications from Öcalan: https://ocalanbooks.com