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... The European Court of Human Rights has contributed much to the improvement of human rights in Turkey and the country´s reform process as it works to join the European Union,....
The report prepared over the course of three years, claims that the Kurds have benefited most from the European court´s decisions while pious Muslims have been disappointed, though both groups are losing their faith in the court but for different reasons.
The report prepared by Dilek Kurban of the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) and Ozan Erözden and Haldun Gülalp of Yildiz Technical University.
..the court has been kept busy by applications from Turkey. According to an annual report put out by the court, over the last 10 years it has received 24,945 applications from Turkey, of which 13,615 were declared inadmissible.
The case study report points out that the European court´s case law demonstrated not only the dismissive attitude of legislative and executive authorities toward human rights but also the absence of an impartial and neutral judiciary upholding the principles of the rule of law and human rights.
The report in addition underlines that the EU played an indispensable role in terms of the political impact of the European court´s decisions. In monitoring Turkey´s compliance with the Copenhagen criteria, the EU treated European court judgments as benchmarks in measuring progress:
... AKP was convinced that the EU membership was the only remedy against the army´s interference into politics in Turkey. This motive was the principal factor behind the pro-EU stand of the AKP which undertook radical legal reforms during its first term in the government, particularly between 2002 and 2004. ..
According to the study, the first group to take advantage of the individual petition mechanism was the Kurds, though they started to file cases in Strasbourg five years after the right to petition was granted. .....
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"Freedom of religion is a rare area where the European court has by and large upheld domestic law and ruled in favor of the government. With the exception of a case brought by an Alevi minority, ....
The EU process proved to be a turning point for minorities resorting to the European court. The strengthening of domestic human rights mechanisms and the public debate generated by the democratization and reform processes encouraged the hitherto much less vocal and visible groups to adopt the emerging rights discourse. The self-confidence and awareness they gained encouraged minorities to litigate in Strasbourg.
The full article:
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=168685
I dont know how to answer the question in title really..
The facts from the report is a huge embarresment for us really..
If your judiciary was just and compliant with the rule of law and human rights, why would your citizens go there?
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