Last Updated on October 3, 2020 by LawEuro
SECOND SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 2035/10
Gülten ÖZTÜRK and others
against Turkey
The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting on 20 November 2018 as a Committee composed of:
Ledi Bianku, President,
Jon Fridrik Kjølbro,
Ivana Jelić, judges,
and Hasan Bakırcı, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 29 December 2009,
Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the case,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
1. A list of the applicants is set out in the appendix.
2. The Turkish Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent.
3. The applicants complained under Article 6 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention about their inability to secure the enforcement of a judgment as a result of the refusal of the defendant party to pay the required court fees.
4. On 7 June 2012 and 19 December 2011 the Court received friendly settlement declarations signed by the parties under which the first applicant agreed to waive any further claims against Turkey in respect of the facts giving rise to this application against an undertaking by the Government to pay her 7,700 euros (seven thousand and seven hundred euros (EUR)) to cover any pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage as well as costs and expenses, which will be converted into the national currency of the respondent State at the rate applicable on the date of payment, and will be free of any taxes that may be applicable. It will be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court. In the event of failure to pay this sum within the said three-month period, the Government undertook to pay simple interest on it, from the expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points. The payment will constitute the final resolution of the case.
THE LAW
5. The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the Government and the first applicant. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no reasons to justify a continued examination of the application. In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case out of the list in so far as it concerns the first applicant.
6. As regards the second and third applicants, the Government submitted a preliminary objection and stated that they did not have a victim status as they had acted as the lawyers of the first applicant and had not been a direct party to the impugned proceedings.
7. The Court recalls that the term “victim” used in Article 34 of the Convention denotes the person directly affected by the act or omission which is in issue. Therefore a person cannot complain of a violation of his or her rights in proceedings to which he or she was not a party (see Yıldız v. Turkey (dec.) [Committee], no.9050/06, 4 November 2014).
8. In the present case, the second and third applicants were indeed the first applicant’s lawyers in the domestic proceedings and thus the Court considers that their rights under the Convention were not directly affected. As a result, the second and third applicants lack the victim status under the Convention.
9. In view of the foregoing, the Court concludes that the application, in respect of the second and third applicants, must be rejected for being incompatible ratione personae with the Convention within the meaning of Article 35.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 39 of the Convention in respect of the first applicant,
Declares the application inadmissible in respect of the second and third applicants.
Done in English and notified in writing on 13 December 2018.
Hasan Bakırcı Ledi Bianku
Deputy Registrar President
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Appendix
1. Ms GültenÖztürk is a Turkish national, who was born in 1963 and she lives in Ankara. She was represented before the Court by the second applicant.
2. Mr Hüseyin Hayrettin Erdoğan is a Turkish national, who was born in 1967 and he lives in Ankara.
3. Mr FaikErdoğan is a Turkish national, who was born in 1930 and he lives in Ankara. He was represented before the Court by the second applicant.
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