PROJE HAKKINDA.

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.