Conference "The Best Practices of Individual Complaint to the Constitutional Courts in Europe"

Strasbourg, 7 July 2014

Distinguished and honourable Presidents of Constitutional Courts, Excellencies, Esteemed Judges, Ladies and Gentlemen, dear friends,

I am delighted to be given this opportunity to greet you at the end of this important Conference, which benchmarks a very successful project between Turkey and the Council of Europe on “Supporting the individual complaint mechanism to the Constitutional Court of Turkey”. As you have noted, we have made an effort to link the activities on the latter project with similar ones we conduct in other countries, thus making the present conference a truly multilateral event. I trust that the conference has allowed you to benefit from each other’s experience and that your work would be facilitated by your knowledge of the best European practices in this area.

I am proud to be able to say few more words on the Turkish experience. The Council of Europe successfully completed in November 2013 the project that effectively supported the establishment of the individual application mechanism to the Constitutional Court in Turkey.

Allow me to express my deep and warm gratitude to President Kılıç in particular for his outstanding cooperation with the Council of Europe and his active work in the establishment of the individual complaint mechanism in Turkey. My special thanks also go to the Presidents of the other Constitutional Courts who accepted to join us today for this exchange on best practices. It was indeed interesting to hear about the thoughts from the Constitutional Courts of Spain, Germany and Croatia, where the individual applications’ system was introduced a while ago.

We are very happy to see now that the system works well. The first judgments of the Constitutional Court of Turkey, related to the length of detention and pre-trial detention, as well as the rulings on Twitter and Youtube bans and the decision on the law on High Council of Judges and Prosecutors are in line with the case law of the ECtHR. This is a clear positive signal of the effectiveness of the new remedy in Turkey and we wish all the success to the Constitutional Court and especially to President Kılıç in fulfilling this highly challenging new task. Of course the assessment of the system that we have conducted since the beginning of 2014 has shown that there is still scope for further improvement and I have no doubts that the Constitutional Court will be ready to take into account the recommendations of the assessment report.

I am convinced that the new remedy is a crucial step to bring justice closer to the citizens thereby increasing their confidence in the Turkish judicial system. I have no doubts that the Constitutional Court will prove to be a good example for other countries in Europe, too.

The Council of Europe will go on supporting the individual application mechanism to the Constitutional Court in making the new remedy even more effective. This will be done through a new project, a large-scale Joint Programme with the EU, which could start later in 2014.

Reading the judgments of the Constitutional Court of Turkey shows how important the Court is and will be for Turkish society and also for the Council of Europe. The Court plays a significant role and has been gaining the confidence of Turkish people, at this time, where concerns about the independence and impartiality of judiciary have been expressed by various national and international institutions.

We are confident that the Constitutional Court of Turkey will adopt more well-founded decisions impacting the domestic legal landscape in a determinant manner and bringing redress to possible breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights. This demonstrates that the newly introduced individual application system is indeed an effective remedy.

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Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Next to the positive developments I just noted, I would like to highlight some challenges that were also stressed during the conference by some of you:

The Constitutional courts are the key elements in the domestic implementation of the Convention but their efforts must be accompanied by all the other elements of the domestic judicial systems. The Constitutional Courts are not likely to replace the ordinary jurisdiction nor should they become “victims of their success”.

There is an absolute necessity to improve both initial and in-service training systems for all judges and prosecutors in order to enhance the capacities of lower courts, new judges and prosecutors to use and apply the CoE standards in their everyday work as well as to develop the capacity of lawyers to use effectively the judicial remedies available. The European Programme for Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (the HELP Programme) is ready to contribute in this respect and this is not only true for Turkey but also for all CoE member states.

It is moreover essential to make the society and in particular potential applicants aware of the scope of intervention and comptenecies of the Constitutional Courts and the ordinary courts respectively. An outreach policy, including communication of statistics and reports for the public and legal professionals, would not only make the courts’ work more transparent for citizens but will also ultimately facilitate the judicial work.

Appropriate tools or mechanisms should be set up within the courts, to facilitate the work of judges when they take into account the relevant European standards and seek to give effect to the Convention requirements.

I should also mention the need to monitor the effects and the enforcement of Constitutional Court’s judgments. Delayed implementation may create confusion among lower courts and challenge the effectiveness of the remedy as a whole.

Finally, Constitutional Courts may further explore their potential to ensure the swift adoption of the necessary general measures required by the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. We have witnessed an interesting development in respect of the Russian Constitutional Court which has just acquired new powers in this area and are looking forward to seeing the implementation of the new procedures in practice for the sake of better enforcement of the Convention rights at the national level.

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Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Today, we touched upon several experiences from various member states of the Council of Europe, exchanged opinions and engaged in fruitful debates. I am hopeful that this conference will serve as a ground for new initiatives for enhancing domestic proceedings to improve the individual complaint mechanisms. With no doubt, it will serve for a better protection of human rights in every member state.

I would like to thank all visiting delegations from Albania, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Moldova, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey and Kosovo* for their participation in this conference.

I would also like to thank the Constitutional Courts of Spain and Germany and their representatives who were actively involved in our project assisting the Turkish Constitutional Court. My thanks also go to Mr Luca Perilli and the team of consultants who carried out the assessment study.

I thank you all for your active participation.

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Mr and Ms Presidents, your Excellencies, Esteemed Judges, Ladies and Gentlemen, I can assure you that the Council of Europe remains ready to provide you with any support needed so that everyone enjoys the rights guaranteed by both the national Constitutions and the European Convention on Human Rights in their daily life.

Thank you.