29-30 September 2026 / PUBLICATIONS. 

TLSP and HRW held a series of meetings with senior Council of Europe officials and parliamentarians during the autumn session (28 September-2 October 2026) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg. The meetings were held with Mathieu Mori, Secretary General of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe; the office of Michael O'Flaherty, Commissioner for Human Rights; Anna-Kristiina Mikkonen, PACE General Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and whistleblowers; Ivan Račan, PACE General Rapporteur on political prisoners; Adam Bodnar, Chair of the Network of Parliamentarians to Promote the Implementation of the Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights; and the Council of Europe's Department for the Execution of Judgments. In these meetings, the deepening human rights and rule of law crisis in Türkiye was discussed, and views were exchanged on what civil society organisations and the Council of Europe can do to address it.

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TLSP also followed the public hearing on Osman Kavala, organised by the Network of Parliamentarians to Promote the Implementation of ECtHR Judgments. At the hearing, Prof. Ayşe Buğra , Osman Kavala's spouse, and his lawyer, Prof. Philip Leach, updated parliamentarians on his situation. Kavala has been deprived of his liberty for 9 years despite ECtHR rulings.

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In these meetings the deepening human rights and rule of law crisis in Türkiye was discussed, and views were exchanged on what civil society organisations and the Council of Europe can do to address it.