The right to peaceful assembly in Turkey: the Oya Ataman case
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On 22 April 2000, Oya Ataman took to Sultanahmet Square, Istanbul, in protest against prison conditions in Turkey. Despite posing no threat to public order, Turkish authorities subjected Oya and several of her colleagues to arbitrary arrest and repelled them with pepper spray, a nerve agent capable of causing respiratory problems, nausea, vomiting and spasms.
In December 2006, The European Court found a violation of Article 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights, protecting the right to peaceful assembly.
Country situation
Freedom to protest in Turkey is still curtailed by restrictive law and practice. There are effective bans on of assemblies of selected groups, as well as a retaliatory use of tear gas and the unjustified prosecution of participants.
EIN Activities
EIN Chair, Professor Basak Cali made a presentation on the ongoing situation was made in an EIN briefing to Committee of Ministers representatives in Februay 2019. This was accompanied by a written Rule 9 submission from the Human Rights Joint Platform.
Useful links to the Oya Ataman group v Turkey (Application No 74552/01):
Final judgment by the European Court of Human Rights (5/3/2007)
Case details for implementation on Hudoc-EXEC
EIN briefing about the case (25/2/2019), with a link to NGO submissions