Thousands to rally in Strasbourg to demand action over Turkey's failure to enforce ECtHR rulings

Human rights groups say thousands of people from across Europe will gather in Strasbourg on June 24 to demand action over Turkey's failure to enforce European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments.

The Peaceful Actions Platform will organize the fifth Justice Gathering outside the Council of Europe headquarters with support from 17 civil society groups operating across Europe.

The organizers will call on Turkey to enforce binding court judgments and on the Council of Europe to use its powers to secure compliance.

The Council of Europe is a 46-member human rights organization that is separate from the European Union. Its Committee of Ministers supervises how member states enforce final judgments from the ECtHR.

The Peaceful Actions Platform said millions of people in Turkey have suffered from injustice for years while the country's executive and judicial authorities have ignored ECtHR judgments.

"Our demand this year is simple: justice for everyone," the platform said.

The organizers cited Turkey's failure to enforce judgments involving jailed civil society leader Osman Kavala, imprisoned Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirta? and former teacher Yueksel Yal??nkaya.

Kavala has been imprisoned since October 2017. The ECtHR found that Turkish authorities had detained him without reasonable evidence and had used his imprisonment to silence him.

Demirta?, a former leader of a pro-Kurdish political party, has been imprisoned since November 2016. The ECtHR Grand Chamber found that Turkish authorities had detained him to restrict political debate and ordered his release.

Turkey has not released either man despite the binding judgments.

The organizers will also highlight the Yal??nkaya judgment, which concerns Turkey's mass prosecution of people accused of links to the Guelen movement.

The Guelen movement is a faith-based group inspired by the late Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Guelen.

President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's government accuses the movement of orchestrating an attempted coup in July 2016. Guelen had condemned the coup attempt and denied any involvement.

Turkish authorities have prosecuted hundreds of thousands of people over alleged links to the movement. Prosecutors have used legal activities such as working at movement-affiliated schools, depositing money at the now-closed Bank Asya, joining legal associations and allegedly using the ByLock messaging application as evidence of terrorism.

The ECtHR Grand Chamber ruled in September 2023 that Turkey had violated Yal??nkaya's rights by convicting him without establishing individual criminal conduct.

The court found a systemic problem that affected thousands of similar cases and required Turkey to take broader action to correct it.

The Peaceful Actions Platform said Turkey has not enforced the judgment and continues to prosecute people on the basis of ordinary activities that were legal when they took place.

The organizers will also cite the Grand Chamber's May 2026 judgment in the case of ?aban Yasak.

The court reaffirmed that Turkish authorities cannot convict a person by treating an act that was not itself a crime as proof of membership in a terrorist organization.

The platform said the Yal??nkaya and Yasak judgments show that Turkey cannot retroactively turn ordinary and legal activities into terrorism evidence.

Despite those rulings, Turkish authorities continue to detain and prosecute people accused of Guelen movement links, the platform said.

The organizers said the prosecutions push families into poverty and force children to grow up under social stigma.

The platform also said prisoners face inadequate medical care and prolonged isolation.

"This is not justice," the platform said. "This is the normalization of injustice, and it must end."

The Strasbourg gathering will also demand a functioning democracy in Turkey.

The organizers said President Erdo?an's government has weakened judicial independence and removed meaningful checks between the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

The platform said opposition-run municipalities face dismissals, administrative intervention and criminal investigations that authorities do not apply to municipalities controlled by the governing party.

The organizers said Turkish authorities treat elected officials, municipal employees and political activists as security threats instead of participants in democratic life.

?stanbul Mayor Ekrem ?mamo?lu, Erdo?an's main political rival, is being held pending trial in a case that ?mamo?lu and his Republican People's Party say is politically motivated.

The Turkish government denies interfering in court cases and says the judiciary operates independently.

The organizers will also demand an end to the prosecution of journalists for their reporting and public comments.

Reporters Without Borders ranked Turkey 163rd among 180 countries in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index.

The platform said Turkish prosecutors routinely use three provisions of the Turkish Penal Code to silence reporting on corruption, human rights abuses and politically sensitive cases.

Article 299 criminalizes insulting the president. Article 217/A criminalizes the public distribution of allegedly misleading information. Article 216 covers incitement to hatred and hostility.

The organizers said authorities use the provisions against journalists, political opponents and social media users.

"Without freedom of expression, an informed society and democratic accountability are not possible," the platform said.

The organizers said Turkey's rule of law crisis does not affect only one political, religious or social group.

The platform said it stands with civil society leaders, Kurdish politicians, opposition mayors, journalists, students, teachers, Guelen movement followers and other people subjected to arbitrary state action.

The organizers said the European Convention on Human Rights remains one of the last possible sources of justice for people who can no longer obtain a fair hearing from Turkey's institutions.

The platform said the Council of Europe must not allow that system to fail.

The gathering will call on the Council of Europe to use all its supervisory tools, defend the authority of the ECtHR and require Turkey to enforce judgments fully and without delay.

"Turkey is a party to the European Convention on Human Rights," the platform said. "Binding judgments must be implemented."

The 17 supporting organizations are Aktion fuer Fluechtlingshilfe, Broken Chalk, Collectif pour la D?fense des Droits de l'Homme, Ehil e.V., Feel Humanity, Human Rights Solidarity, Human Right Defender, the International Association for Human Rights Advocacy in Geneva, the International Journalists Association, Mangfoldhuset, Solidarity with OTHERS, Tenkil Museum e.V., Together Platform, Verein Verfolgt, the Victim Laborers Platform, Voz da Liberdade and Weltanwaelte e.V.

Peaceful Actions Platform, Strasbourg, France

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This release was published on openPR.