Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project (TLSP) published a comprehensive report on Inquiry Commission on State of Emergency Measures.

Having examined 193 applications and the Inquiry Commission’s decisions as to these applications, TLSP concluded as following:

The Commission which was established as an ad hoc remedy does not have structural and practical safeguards ensuring its independence and impartiality and fails in capacity to provide a fair and effective process in the review of emergency measures. Applicants are forced to prove that they have no links with any proscribed groups or organisations without any prior knowledge about accusations or evidence against them. The situation is exacerbated by the lack of transparency and denial of meaningful participation in proceedings before the Commission. In the assessment of a person’s alleged link with a proscribed group, the Commission uses a very low evidential threshold, criminalizing everyday life practices without requiring proof of any disciplinary or criminal wrongdoing. Among others, the Commission mainly relies on intelligence information, confidential witness statements or unverifiable information obtained from so-called “social circles” without any possibility given to the applicants to challenge them. Finally, having rejected the vast majority of the applications in the proceedings short of fundamental due process guarantees, and with many more applications still pending before it, the Commission has demonstrably failed to meet with the standards of the right to an effective remedy under international law.

To read and download report, click here.

To go to the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project’s web site click here.

To read our factsheet about the Inquiry Commission on State of Emergency Measures, click here.