ISTANBUL - The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe will once again take up the The European Court of Human Rights’ “violation” judgment on Abdullah Öcalan after 3 years. 

 

The European Court of Human Rights, in its 2014 ruling “Öcalan 2”, ruled that the aggravated life sentence given to PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which prohibits torture and ill-treatment. It was also noted that the prohibition of parole was a violation of the “right to hope”. 

 

10 YEARS WITHOUT ACTION

 

Turkey has not taken any action despite 10 years having passed since the judgment. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which is responsible for monitoring the implementation of The European Court of Human Rights judgments, put the “violation” judgment on its agenda for the first time in 2015. Turkey submitted an “Action Plan” to the committee on July 24, 2015. In the action plan, it was claimed that the Court judgment had been sent to all courts with its translation and that the judgment had been enforced. However, in practice, the Court judgment has not been implemented.

 

Rights and legal organizations notified the Committee of Ministers for the first time on 26 July 2021, demanding that the Court's violation judgment be put on its “urgent” agenda. Upon this notification, the Committee put the Court judgment on its agenda on November 30-December 2. In its decision, the Committee gave Turkey until September 2022 to notify Turkey that it had taken the necessary steps. However, there was no development in this process either. 

 

In its notifications and “Action Plans” submitted to the committee in recent years, Turkey admitted that it “exempted” Abdullah Öcalan and other prisoners from the right to hope and ignored the violations in İmralı. 

 

CALL FOR LEGISLATIVE CHANGE FROM NGOS

 

Upon the application of civil society organizations, the decision was again on the committee's agenda. After 3 years, the Committee announced that it will put the Court's “Öcalan 2” decision back on its agenda on September 17-19, 2024. Following the committee's announcement, rights and legal organizations made a new statement and called for the necessary legislative changes to be made to implement the decision.

 

Committee members are expected to meet today. One of the agendas of the meeting will be the “violation” decision on Öcalan. 

 

The committee is expected to announce its decision on Turkey after the 2-day meeting.