Raad van Europa: straf gewetensgevangene in strijd met Mensenrechten Conventie (en)

Press release - 701(2007)

Turkey: Conscientious objector applicant summonsed to serve prison sentence despite judgment of the European Court

Strasbourg, 19.10.2007 - Following the most recent summons of the applicant, a conscientious objector, to serve an outstanding prison sentence, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted an Interim Resolution in the case of Ülke against Turkey. In this case the European Court of Human Rights found that the applicant's repeated convictions and imprisonment for having refused to perform compulsory military service amounted to degrading treatment in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In its Interim Resolution, the Committee of Ministers regretted that the applicant is now facing a real risk of being imprisoned. Therefore, the Committee urged Turkey to take without further delay all necessary measures to put an end to the violation of the applicant's rights. It further urged Turkey to adopt rapidly the necessary legislative reform, which was announced previously, and decided to examine this case at each of its human rights meetings until the necessary urgent measures are adopted.

Full text of the Interim Resolution ResDH(2007)109

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The information submitted to the Committee and its decisions are public. Interim Resolutions and decisions adopted on important and urgent issues become public at the end of the meeting. The other decisions adopted and the annotated agenda containing information on the progress in the execution of judgments are made public some weeks after the meeting. These documents together with more comprehensive information on the execution of judgments by the member states are available on http://www.coe.int/t/cm/home_en.asp or http://www.coe.int/Human_rights/execution/ .

Council of Europe Press Division

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