The Freedom of Expression Association (İfade Özgürlüğü Derneği – IFÖD), led by Global Freedom of Expression expert Yaman Akdeniz, has submitted two communications to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe arguing that there has been no progress achieved with regard to the provision of an adequate legislative framework in Turkey that enables the protection of Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention and the full and effective implementation of the European Court of Human Rights judgments on Öner and Türk; Şener and Akçam as well as Işıkırık group of cases. Moreover, İFÖD argues in these two separate submissions that the legislative framework in Turkey has become more arbitrary and punitive so far as freedom of expression is concerned.

The following submissions were made subject to Rule 9.2 of the Council of Europe Rules of the Committee of Ministers for the supervision of the execution of judgments and of the terms of friendly settlements. Subject to Rule 9.2 the Committee of Ministers is entitled to consider any communication from non-governmental organisations, as well as national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights, with regard to the execution of judgments under Article 46(2) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The submissions also include the Government’s responses.

DH-DD(2020)92, 31/01/2020: Communication from a NGO (The Freedom of Expression Association (İfade Özgürlüğü Derneği – IFÖD) (22/01/2020) in the cases of Altug Taner Akcam v. Turkey (27520/07), Nedim Sener v. Turkey (38270/11) and Oner and Turk v. Turkey (51962/12) and response from the Turkish authorities (30/01/2020) for the 1369th  meeting of the CoE Committee of Ministers (March 2020) (DH) (appendices in Turkish are available at the Secretariat upon request) https://rm.coe.int/native/09000016809a463a

DH-DD(2020)81, 30/01/2020: Communication from a NGO (The Freedom of Expression Association (İfade Özgürlüğü Derneği – IFÖD) (21/01/2020) in the case of Işıkırık Group v. Turkey (Application No. 41226/09) and response from the Turkish authorities (28/01/2020) for the 1369th  meeting of the CoE Committee of Ministers (March 2020) (DH) https://rm.coe.int/native/09000016809a441a

İfade Özgürlüğü Derneği (İFÖD) was set up formally in August 2017 to protect and foster the right to freedom of opinion and expression in Turkey (Web: https://ifade.org.tr Twitter: @ifadeorgtr).