Research |

We carry out research on key human rights issues and strive to bridge the gap between practitioners, judicial authorities and policy makers on national and international human rights standards. To do this, we conduct research on critical legal issues related to state of emergency measures, including the effectiveness of remedies, derogation regimes, restriction of human rights in the fight against terrorism, rule of law standards and the independence of the judiciary. We also circulate relevant case-law among practitioners, and provide them with reports, press releases and opinions of international and regional human rights monitoring mechanisms to assist their litigation activities.

Our Research Work |

Securing access to justice in Turkey remains a big challenge, especially for those whose rights were violated during the State of Emergency declared in July 2016. During the State of Emergency, the Government adopted a number of “atypical” emergency measures under more than 30 executive decrees seriously limiting and, in some cases, totally waiving numerous fundamental rights and freedoms by relying on exceptional powers under the Constitution. One hundred thousand public sector workers were dismissed and legal entities including newspapers, television companies, associations and foundations were closed down without individualized reasoning or evidence to support these actions. For a long time, the lack of a clear avenue for appeal of these decisions left those affected in obscurity. Following the adoption of the Decree Law No. 685, establishing the State of Emergency Inquiry Commission (“the Commission”), tens of thousands of people who were dismissed and the entities closed under the emergency decree laws have been forced to apply to the Commission before having recourse to a judicial remedy.

A year after the operation of the Commission, the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project (TLSP), started to carry out a research study to assess whether the Commission offered an effective remedy to challenge measures adopted during the state of emergency or whether it stood as yet another obstacle for victims to overcome in order to access justice in Turkey.  During the study our researcher and the TLSP team reviewed the decisions and reasoning adopted by the Commission in 193 applications as well as national legislation, reports and statistics. The project collected qualitative and quantitative data supported by interviews with lawyers, applicants and experts and prepared an evaluation report by analysing this data. In this report, the Commission’s structure and functioning is evaluated by taking into account the main human rights issues with regards access to justice. Moreover, the decisions of the Commission are examined to determine whether it constitutes an effective legal remedy, in theory and in practice, in the light of the standards of the right to an effective remedy under international law.

A Turkish translation of the report will be published soon, until then an executive summary in Turkish is available here.

This collection provides a list of available written resources regarding the human rights situation in Turkey following the attempted coup in 2016. Each source is briefly summarised to indicate the major themes dealt with by the author, and a full reference is provided so that they can be easily accessed. The first section presents a timeline of events and key legislation. The second provides a link to the notices of derogation lodged by Turkey at the Council of Europe and the United Nations. The third contains information regarding cases lodged before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The fourth, deals with reports filed by international monitoring bodies, namely the UN Human Rights Council (and associated monitoring bodies), the Council of Europe and The European Union. The fifth is a collection of reports and briefings authored by major NGOs. Lastly, journal articles and academic commentary are collected from a variety of sources such as scholarly journals and blogs.