Civil Society Briefing: Turkey, Kavala, and Demirtaş

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This week EIN held its first civil society briefing of 2021. The briefing was held online due to Covid-19. These civil society briefings update the Committee of Ministers (CM) with information on the progress of specific cases. Read more on the implementation process here.

This briefing had two sessions, the first took place on Tuesday, February 23rd, and the second was on February 26th. The first session covered two Turkish cases, presented by Emma Sinclair, Turkey Director at Human Rights Watch, Ayse Bingol, Project Co-Director at the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project, and Kerem Altiparmak, Human Rights Lawyer and Founder at the Freedom of Expression Association (IFÖD).

The Kavala v. Turkey case concerns a Turkish philanthropist and human rights defender who is unjustifiably being detained, for over 1200 days, as a means to silence his speech. More on Kavala here.

Overview of Recommendations by Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists, and the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project on Kavala 

Individual Measures:

The NGOs urge the immediate release of Kavala. If he does remain in pre-trial detention at the time of the 1398th 9-11 March 2021 meeting, the CM should trigger infringement proceedings against Turkey.

General Measures:

The NGOs urges Turkey to address/implement ECtHR violations concerning the right to liberty and security and on the limitations on restricting rights.

Specifically, to: 

  • Request Turkey to inform the Committee of Ministers about the number of people detained on remand since 15 July 2016.

  • Urge Turkey to revise its Action Plan and address in full the structural problems identified in the ECtHR Kavala v. Turkey judgment and recommendations by NGOs.

  • Call on Turkey to pursue a clear and detailed strategy to prevent violations of the rights protected in the Convention. 

Overview of Recommendations by Freedom of Expression Association (IFÖD) on Kavala 

IFÖD urges the CM to invite Turkey to provide statistical information about detention orders issues in the last 5 years and continue to supervise Turkish judicial practice concerning pre-trial detention with the Convention standards.

The Selahattin Demirtaş v. Turkey (No.2) case concerns the arrest/detention of one of Turkey's main opposition leaders to limit political debate.

Overview of Recommendations by ARTICLE 19, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists, the International Federation for Human Rights, and the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project on Demirtaş

Procedural Matters:

The NGOs urge the Committee of Ministers to place Demirtaş v. Turkey (No.2) under enhanced procedures and treated as a leading case.

 Individual Measures:

The NGOs urge the Committee of Ministers to: 

  • Call for the immediate release of Demirtaş required by the judgment and indicate that his ongoing detention is a prolong violation of his rights.

  • Request the Government of Turkey to end the abuse of judicial proceedings to harass Demirtaş, including by dropping all charges under which he has been investigated and detained.

  • Publicly correct false claims promoted by senior officials of the Government of Turkey.

The second briefing took place on Friday, 26th February 2021. This session focused on two case groups:

Relevant Documents: