Fazilet Partisi and Kutan v. Turkey (dec.)

Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 76

June 2005

Fazilet Partisi and Kutan v. Turkey (dec.) - 1444/02

Decision 30.6.2005 [Section III]

Article 11

Article 11-1

Freedom of association

Dissolution of political party by the Constitutional Court: admissible

The first applicant, a political party, was created in December 1997 and dissolved in June 2001. It was then an opposition party with 111 members of parliament and was chaired by the second applicant, an MP. In May 1997 Principal State Counsel at the Court of Cassation applied to the Constitutional Court for the dissolution of the party, on the ground that it had become a centre of anti-secularist activity. He contended that the leaders and members of the party were advocating or actively promoting certain practices, in particular the wearing of the Islamic headscarf, which were contrary to the principle of secularism enshrined in the Constitution, and that the Fazilet was the continuation of the Refah, which had been definitively dissolved because of its illegal activities. In June 2001 the Constitutional Court pronounced the dissolution of the party. It invoked the positions taken by the party’s chairman and leaders in favour of the Islamic headscarf being worn in schools, universities, public administrations and in the National Assembly, as well as statements advocating the setting-up of a theocratic regime. Given the party’s electoral potential and the possibility of its political model being implemented, the party represented a threat to public order, to the freedom of thought of others, and to the secular democratic order. The Constitutional Court decided to strip two party members of their MP status and prohibited three others from being founders or members of any other party for a period of five years.

Admissible under Articles 9, 10, 11, 14, 17 and 18 and Article 3 of Protocol No. 1.

© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

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