A training seminar was held in the Grand Tribunal Hall of the Constitutional Court for the assistant specialists holding office at the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey (“TİHEK”). The seminar started with the opening speeches delivered by Mr. Zühtü Arslan, President of the Constitutional Court, and Mr. Süleyman Arslan, Chairman of TİHEK.

The assistant specialists of TİHEK attended the training programme held at the Grand Tribunal Hall. Chairman Süleyman Arslan, expressing his gratitude for the training provided by the rapporteur-judges of the Constitutional Court for the TİHEK assistant specialists, touched upon the works and activities performed by TİHEK.

In his speech, President Zühtü Arslan noted that he was attaching importance to such training activities that would contribute to the improvement of human rights and also dwelled upon the intellectual foundations of the notions such as human rights, justice and equality. He further emphasised that despite the common conviction that these notions being formed from the historical experience of the West were then imposed on all the world, they were indeed our core values dating back to the historical background of our belief and civilisation.

President Arslan afterwards stated that the Constitutional Court, receiving over 300.000 individual applications since 23 September 2012, the date when individual application system was put into operation, adjudicated a minimum of 260.000 applications. He also provided statistical information about the cases in which the Court found a violation.

Pointing to the critical importance of complying with the violation judgments rendered by the Constitutional Court, President Arslan also noted that the Constitutional Court was not a superior appeal authority operating in the judicial and administrative jurisdictions and that the binding nature of, and absolute necessity to comply with, the judgments rendered by the Constitutional Court were directly derived from the Constitution.

President Arslan, indicating that in case of a violation resulting not from an administrative and/or judicial decision but directly from a provision of law, the Constitutional Court would notify the legislature of the situation for information and necessary action, stated “Undoubtedly, it is completely within the legislature’s discretion to decide how to remedy the violation. Therefore, such notification neither constitutes an ‘interference’ with the power to submit legislative proposals, which is exclusively exercised by the members of parliament, nor contradicts with the principle of separation of powers. To the contrary, this practice is in pursuance of the separation of power, which is defined in the Constitution as ‘a civilized cooperation and division of functions’ among the organs of the State, and is a mandatory consequence of an effective individual application system.”. Stressing that the aim pursued by the individual application mechanism was to ensure the foundation of an administrative and legal order functioning well so as to prevent further violations, President Arslan expressed that this aim could be attained only with the collaboration of all constitutional and legal institutions.