European Court of Human Rights upholds Kurdish language rights and fines Turkey for violation of Article 10

European Court of Human Rights upholds Kurdish language rights and fines Turkey for violation of Article 10 (Freedom of Expression) of the ECHR over use of Kurdish at a political meeting.

The judgment in the case of Semir Güzel v. Turkey (application no. 29483/09) the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been: a violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The case concerned the prosecution of a politician because he had permitted participants at a congress of his political party to speak in Kurdish.

The Court found in particular that Mr Güzel’s failure to prevent participants at the congress speaking in Kurdish had been an expression of defiance towards an authority representing the State. His conduct had therefore been a form of expression, which was protected under Article 10 of the European Convention. It also found that his conviction for that conduct had not been sufficiently foreseeable under Turkish law at the time, because the law was unclear.

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