Government sends 4th judicial package to Turkish Parliament

ANKARA

AA photo

A much-expected judicial reform package aiming at eliminating the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rulings concerning violation of human rights has been sent to Parliament following the completion of necessary procedures, the government’s spokesperson has said. 

“I feel embarrassment because the package does not contain many of yours expectations,” deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç told reporters late Friday after the cabinet meeting. Arınç strictly dismissed claims that the package will not bring about releases of Ergenekon or Balyoz cases and that it’s a part of the İmralı Process. 

Arınç said the Parliament will start working on the package Monday and it will send it to relevant parliamentary commissions. “We are in expectation of a swift completion of its legislation,” he stressed. 

Meanwhile, Turkey’s higher courts are undergoing structural changes in order give way to fewer violations of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), in a move that aims to downsize the number of European Court of Human Rights cases against Turkey, head of the Supreme Court of Appeals Ali Alkan said in a speech at Istanbul’s Bahçeşehir University on Feb. 22.

Alkan was the keynote speaker at the university’s conference on the decisions of the Supreme Court of Appeals within the framework of the human rights convention. He underlined the country’s attempt in trying to allow fewer issues to remain unsolved by internal judicial authorities. 

Turkey remains the country with the highest number of violations of the convention, with over 2,500 rulings containing at least one or more violations, according to Supreme Court of Appeals member Necati Meran, one of the conference’s guest speakers. Of those cases, 738 are violations of the right to a fair trial, 634 of them are property violations and 544 of them are on longer trial periods, Meran said.