FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION

University Students Win Trial at ECHR

The ECHR evaluated a police attack on students protesting against the Higher Education Council YÖK law draft as "humiliating treatment". The European Court ruled Turkey to pay a total of 68,000 TL in compensation to 10 students.

Erol Önderoğlu

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decided that Turkey has to pay a total of € 31,000 (TL 68,000) in compensation to 10 students. A group of altogether 17 students had opened a trial at the ECHR regarding their protests against a law draft of the Higher Education Council (YÖK).

The students had organized a protest action against the bill in 2004. The ECHR decreed yesterday (8 December) that the violent intervention of the police was "an attack against the freedom of association". The court ruled for a violation of article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (freedom of assembly and association).

ECHR: Compensation for "humiliating" treatment

The ECHR based its decision for compensation payment on article 3 of the convention, which bans "humiliating treatment". Only disclosing the surnames of the complainants, the ECHR ruled the payment of € 2,000 each for Aytaş, Gok and Metin, € 3000 each for Karatepe, Kurtuluş, Aslan, Ersoy and Bülbül and € 5,000 each for Ocak and Ozan.

The ECHR pronounced that the confirmation of the violation was sufficient to recover the applicants' losses, there was no separate decision concerning further compensation claims for this particular reason. (EÖ/VK)

Origin

BIA News Center

Erol Önderoğlu

[email protected]

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A graduate of the French Language and Literature Department at İstanbul University. He has served as the Turkey representative for the international organization Reporters Without...

A graduate of the French Language and Literature Department at İstanbul University. He has served as the Turkey representative for the international organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where he began as a reporter in 1996. Since 1999, he has worked at bianet, a project of the IPS Communication Foundation, as the coordinator of the Legal Support Desk, editor for freedom of expression, and editor-in-chief. He has authored more than 4,800 signed news articles and opinion pieces. He has also written for Bizim Gazete and the journal Güncel Hukuk. He currently prepares the Media Monitoring Reports at bianet.