New joint Rule 9.2 submission to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the execution of the European Court of Human Rights judgment in the case of Kavala v. Turkey

Council of Europe Ministers should take further steps at their 1390th 1-3 December 2020 meeting to end Mr. Kavala’s ongoing detention immediately.

The Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of Jurists have made a new Rule 9.2 submission (available here) on the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment in Kavala v. Turkey to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

In Kavala v. Turkey, the ECtHR found, on 10 December 2019, violations of Article 5(1) (right to liberty and security), Article 5(4) (right to a speedy decision on the lawfulness of detention), and Article 18 (limitation on use of restrictions on rights) of the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) in conjunction with Article 5(1). In its judgment, which became final on 11 May 2020, the Court requested the Government of Turkey to take measures to end the detention of human rights defender Osman Kavala, the applicant, and to secure his immediate release.

The Committee of Ministers, which monitors implementation of judgments of the ECtHR, reviewed Turkey’s compliance with the Court’s ruling at its 1377bis meeting of 1-3 September 2020 and 1383rd meeting of 29 September – 1 October 2020. The Committee considered that, based on the information available before it, there was a strong presumption that Osman Kavala’s ongoing detention was a continuation of the violations found by the ECtHR. The Committee of Ministers went on to urge the Turkish authorities to ensure Osman Kavala’s immediate release and an urgent conclusion of Mr. Kavala’s application pending before the Constitutional Court in line with the ECtHR’s findings, as well as the criminal proceedings concerning the Gezi Park and 15 July 2016 coup attempt. Despite the ECtHR’s clear ruling and the Committee of Minister’s decisions, Mr. Kavala remains in detention. 

The submission builds on an initial submission dated 29 May 2020 from the same group of NGOs (available here) and provides a detailed analysis of the 28 September 2020 indictment drafted by the Istanbul Public Prosecutor against Osman Kavala. It underlines several developments in relation to the issue of the ongoing interference with the judiciary by the executive in Turkey, including the promotion of the Prosecutor, who drafted the indictment, to Deputy Justice Minister by the President who has been personally targeting Mr. Kavala. According to the NGOs, Mr. Kavala’s ongoing detention and the new indictment against him demonstrate that he still continues to be the subject of a campaign of persecution and all these actions targeting his legitimate human right activities as a human rights defender and civil society activist are intended to reduce him to silence and deter others from carrying out similar activities as addressed already in the ECtHR judgment. 

The NGOs conclude their submission by formulating several recommendations to the Committee of Ministers and urging the Committee, among others, to take further steps to end Mr. Kavala’s ongoing detention immediately, which has now exceeded three years, and to recognise at its upcoming meeting of 1390th 1-3 December 2020 that the continuing detention of Osman Kavala violates Article 46 of the Convention concerning the binding nature of final judgments of the ECtHR and may trigger Article 46(4) infringement proceedings against Turkey.