The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe placed the issue of the “right to hope” for Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan on its agenda during its meeting on 15–17 September 2025 and gave Turkey time until June to implement the decision on the “right to hope.”

 

Lawyers from the Asrın Law Office submitted a petition to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe regarding Öcalan’s “right to hope.”

 

The petition included the following points:

 

 - Given that the Government has so far failed to take any steps in compliance with the ECtHR judgment in Öcalan No. 2, we request that the draft decision warned of at the Committee’s 1537th meeting be prepared and made public.

 

-In light of the failure to take action on general measures despite more than 12 years having elapsed, we request the initiation of infringement proceedings under Article 46 §4 of the Convention.

 

-We request that the Government of Türkiye be called upon to abolish, in accordance with the principles set out in the ECtHR judgments, provisions in Turkish law that impose categorical bans on conditional release for certain offences without discrimination, and to adopt the necessary general measures requiring legislative amendments to eliminate the source of the violation.

 

-We request that the Gurban group of cases v. Türkiye remain under the enhanced supervision procedure.