In recent years, human rights violations have increasingly been reported in Turkey. Various international bodies and courts have confirmed this, sometimes even in very sharp terms. That is why we have taken the initiative to set up a “Turkey Tribunal.”

D O N A T E

Rules of Procedure

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Turkey Tribunal

Rules of Procedure

The “Opinion of the Turkey Tribunal” shall also serve as a source for raising awareness on the human rights situation in Turkey and serve as a source of information for other national and international bodies.

THE RULES OF PROCEDURE OF THE TURKEY TRIBUNAL

CHAPTER I
ESTABLISHMENT AND MISSION

  1. The Tribunal is established with the aim of reporting the human rights violations in Turkey. It is called Turkey Tribunal. The tribunal has his seat in Geneva.
  2. The Court is entirely independent and operates in conformity of these Rules of Procedure.
  1. The mission of the Turkey Tribunal is to assess and report in an independent and professional manner, based on the standards and principles elaborated by other international courts and tribunals and drawing on the experience of the best practices of national courts, all allegations of human rights violations taking place under the jurisdiction of Turkish authorities.
  2. The Turkey Tribunal does not aim to replace or compete with any other national or international jurisdiction or body in the areas of its activities. Any proceeding before the Tribunal or any opinion delivered by the Tribunal shall not be considered as excluding the examination of the same circumstances and alleged violations by another international or national court or tribunal.

The jurisdiction of the Turkey Tribunal covers the human rights provisions contained in the European Convention on Human Rights and other international human rights conventions ratified by the Republic of Turkey and covers the respect of the general principles of international law.

CHAPTER II
ORGANISATION

The organisation of the Turkey Tribunal shall consist of the following bodies:

  1. The Tribunal
  2. The rapporteurs
  3. The registry
  1. The Turkey Tribunal shall be composed of 6 judges representing as far as possible different geographical and jurisdictional areas.
  2. Judges are designated by the board of Turkey Tribunal vzw.
  3. The judges of the Tribunal shall be persons of high moral character, impartiality, and integrity, with extensive judicial experience in human rights areas. They shall be independent in the performance of their functions and shall not accept or seek instructions from any Government or any other source.
  4. The tribunal shall operate in a plenary formation composed of all judges. The tribunal cannot function if not at least 4 judges are present.
  5. The Tribunal, by majority of its members, shall vote the Rules of Procedure, shall elect the President and designate its Registrar on proposal of the President. These votes can be executed in digital way.
  1. The Turkey Tribunal vzw can appoint rapporteurs. Rapporteurs shall be persons of substantial human rights experience, especially in fact finding and reporting. The reports will be submitted to the President of the tribunal.
  2. Rapporteurs shall act in full independence in the performance of their functions and shall not accept or seek instructions from any Government or any other source.
  3. In preparing the reports into the human rights violations’ allegations, the rapporteurs will collect information, witness statements and all that could be useful and appropriate to the reports.
  1. A registry, composed of at least one experienced human rights lawyer, shall be set up and operate under the authority of the President of the Tribunal.
  2. The Registry shall be responsible for the administration and servicing of the Tribunal.
  3. The Registry shall consist of a Registrar and such other staff as may be required.
  4. The Registrar shall be appointed by the plenary formation of the Tribunal in conformity with Article 5 § 5 above, for a three-year term and may be eligible for reappointment for further similar terms.

CHAPTER III
PROCEDURE

  1. Rapporteurs prepare reports based on allegations, information, fact finding missions, reports from other national or international bodies and all other sources that can be considered as credible.
  2. The reports can concern individual cases of human rights allegation in Turkey, allegations in an area of human rights, violations of human rights in a specific region of Turkey or violations concerning a particular group of population.
  3. The reports will be sent by the President to the Turkish Government for observations. For that purpose, the reports will be sent to the Turkish Ambassador to the UN in Geneva. The reports will be sent not later than 6 weeks before the Tribunal will be in session. The observations from the Turkish government will be sent to the Tribunal not later than two weeks after they were sent to the Turkish government.
  4. Third parties can submit a written observation on the reports and the observations of the Turkish government, at the latest one week before the start of the session of the tribunal.
  5. The reports and the respective eventual observations are submitted to the Tribunal.
  1. With the aim of preparing professional, impartial and just opinions of the human rights situation in Turkey the Tribunal will organise hearings. The Tribunal might invite victims, witnesses, human rights activists to represent their opinions on the draft reports being considered. The Tribunal will invite the representative of the Turkish Government to represent the opinion of the Turkish government on the draft reports being considered.  In any case the rapporteurs will be given the opportunity to present their report and to react to the observations of the Turkish government.
  2. The hearings shall be public unless the Tribunal decides to hold the proceedings in camera if the Tribunal deems that this is required by the interests of justice, for the protection of victims or witnesses, or for the protection of juvenile.
  1. The deliberations will be held in Geneva. They might be also held online.
  2. In case there is a hearing on a specific report or on specific reports, deliberations on that report or these reports shall be held immediately after the hearing is closed.
  3. Deliberations are held in camera and the participants respect the secret of deliberations.
  4. At the deliberations the judges consider the reports, the written and oral observations and the debates hold during the hearings and make a decision in the form of an “Opinion of the Turkey Tribunal”.
  5. The “Opinion of the Turkey Tribunal” shall be published on the website of the Tribunal and through electronic mass media within a deadline established by the President.
  1. The “Opinion of the Turkey Tribunal” is not binding to the parties. These opinions shall be drafted in such a way as to carefully analyse the human rights violations allegations in Turkey.
  2. The “Opinion of the Turkey Tribunal” shall also serve as a source for raising awareness on the human rights situation in Turkey and serve as a source of information for other national and international bodies.

CHAPTER IV
GENERAL AND FINAL PROVISIONS

The official language of the proceedings before the Turkish Tribunal is English. The Tribunal will provide for the possibility of translation from and to other languages and more especially from and to the Turkish language.

As established by the Turkey Tribunal on April 08, 2021.