Emir Onur Romano Cilek is a human-rights practitioner and country-conditions specialist on Turkey, with fifteen years documenting and contesting the persecution of non-believers, apostates (ex-Muslims), converts, secular activists, and LGBTQ+ people. He founded and leads Ateizm Derneği — the first legally recognised atheist organisation in a Muslim-majority country — and in March 2026 delivered an oral statement at the 61st Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, on behalf of Humanists International and Ateizm Derneği, addressing Turkey's Penal Code Article 216(3). Through the Atheist Refugee Assistance Program, the Atheist Support Network, and the Secular Rescue Program, he has assessed and documented many hundreds of protection cases originating from Turkey and the surrounding region, including evidentiary documentation relied on in UNHCR and immigration proceedings. His expertise covers the legal framework criminalising religious dissent (Penal Code Articles 216 and 301), state and societal treatment of the non-religious and apostates, family- and community-based ("honour") risk, surveillance and prosecution of activists, and the situation of LGBTQ+ individuals and women at risk.
Founder, Ateizm Derneği (Association of Atheism, Turkey) and
Society of Agnostics and Atheists of Georgia;
Manager, Secular Rescue Program (Center for Inquiry
Transnational).
Director, Atheist Refugee Assistance Program, Turkey (Ateizm
Dernegi).
Director, Assistance for Apostates Program, (Centre for Inquiry
Canada).
Director, Atheist Support Network, (Atheist Alliance
International)
Human Rights Chair, Centre for Inquiry Canada.
Turkey: criminalisation of religious dissent and "denigration of religious values" (Penal Code Art. 216, esp. 216(3)) and "insulting" provisions (Art. 301); state and societal treatment of atheists, apostates from Islam, converts, and the openly non-religious; risks of arbitrary investigation, prosecution, employment and educational discrimination, surveillance, and family- or community-based violence including "honour"-based harm; the position of secular and humanist activists and human-rights defenders; and the situation of LGBTQ+ people and women at risk. South Caucasus: as founder of the Society of Agnostics and Atheists in Georgia and an NGO operator in Azerbaijan, current knowledge of conditions for the non-religious and secular activists across the region.
In October 2021 the Research Directorate of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) consulted me, through Ateizm Derneği (where I serve as Director of International Relations), as a source for its research on the treatment of atheists in Turkey. I prepared a detailed written submission on the treatment of non-believers by the authorities, by society, and by state-linked informant mechanisms, and consented to its use as evidence in refugee protection hearings. Ateizm Derneği is listed among the sources consulted in the resulting published Response to Information Request, TUR200821.E (25 November 2021), available on the IRB website and ecoi.net. This rests on fifteen years of refugee casework and country-conditions documentation: 296+ protection cases coordinated through the Atheist Refugee Assistance Program; evidentiary documentation vetted for 311+ UNHCR cases as Director of the Atheist Support Network; end-to-end UNHCR application processes managed for 152 refugee families; 88 support and reference letters used in asylum and resettlement proceedings; and an oral statement before the 61st UN Human Rights Council (Geneva, 2026). Report turnaround typically within two weeks; expedited service available.
Editor-in-Chief, Secular World (Atheist Alliance International, 2015–2018); Founder & Chief Editor, Ateist Dergi — the first hardcopy atheist magazine in the Middle East (2013–2014); producer and host of 400+ long-form programmes on freedom of religion or belief and human-rights conditions; oral statement to the 61st UN Human Rights Council (2026), archived via Humanists International.
dissidents critical of religious-nationalist policy.
(ex-Muslims); freedom-of-religion-or-belief (FoRB) claimants; religious minorities at
risk