WHAT SHOULD BE CONSIDERED WHEN APPLYING TO THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS?

An application to the European Court of Human Rights is deemed to have been submitted after all national legal remedies have been exhausted and the application form found at (https://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=applicants/tur&c=) is duly and completely completed and sent to the address below via registered mail via PTT. Your application will be reviewed free of charge. This means there is no fee or cost to apply individually.

 The Registrar
European Court of Human Rights
Council of Europe
67075 Strasbourg cedex
FRANCE

If the Court determines that your application has been submitted in full, you will receive a notification confirming its receipt. After your application is processed, it will be reviewed in its entirety. The court's workload is quite heavy, and it's impossible to specify a precise timeframe for review.
The ECtHR's trial procedure is, in principle, written. You will be informed in writing of all decisions made by the court regarding your application. The ECtHR will first review your application based on "admissibility criteria." If the complaints submitted are deemed inadmissible, the decision is final; you have no right to appeal.

If your complaints/application are deemed "admissible," the court (you and the state) will be encouraged to reach an amicable settlement. This can be considered a mediation process. The state against which the application is filed may offer a monetary compensation. If you have no valid reason or reject the amicable settlement without justification, the court may strike your application from the list of cases after the government declares that the contract has been breached and undertakes to provide adequate compensation. Ultimately, if an amicable solution cannot be reached on justified grounds, the court will review the merits of the application and decide whether there has been a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. If the court finds a violation, it may award monetary compensation/compensation (if you so request) to compensate for some of your losses. If the application is rejected, no legal costs or attorney fees will be awarded. You will only be responsible for the costs you incurred.
The European Court of Human Rights examines applications in a highly formal and detailed manner. For this reason, 90% of applications are rejected outright. Filing the application with a lawyer is crucial to prevent loss of rights. Similarly, even if you don't need a lawyer at the initial stage of your application, you will inevitably need one after your application is notified to the government.

A. YOUR APPLICATION MUST MEET THE ACCEPTIBILITY CRITERIA.
Your complaints must concern a violation of one or more fundamental rights guaranteed by the Convention and its Protocols.
Your complaints must be made against a State Party to the Convention and/or the relevant Protocol.
Your complaints must concern actions within the scope of responsibility of a public authority (legislative body, administrative authority, court, etc.). The Court will not consider complaints against private individuals or organizations.

Your complaints must relate to actions and events that occurred after the date the relevant state ratified the Convention or the Protocol in question.

You must have been personally and directly affected by the violation of a fundamental right (you must have "victim status").

You must have raised your complaints in the domestic legal system in order to obtain a resolution for the complaints that are the subject of your application (you must have exhausted domestic remedies).

Your duly prepared and fully prepared application must be submitted to the Court within four months of the date of the decision of the highest competent domestic court.

• The date you clicked on the final decision regarding the exhaustion of domestic legal remedies is important. This can be determined from log records. THE NOTIFICATION DATE = THE DATE OF LEARNING. Your application form, along with all required information and documents, must be mailed to the Court before the last day of the four-month period. If you find any missing information or documents during the application process, you must complete the missing information within this four-month period. An incomplete application will not interrupt/suspend the four-month period. Therefore, it is beneficial to apply without delay after the final decision.
• Your application is considered to have been submitted on the date the form is submitted to the Court, and the date on the postmark is considered the application date.
Your complaints must not have been reviewed by the ECHR or any other international authority. In other words, there must not be an application pending with the same complaints or an application submitted to an international resolution center.

B. CRITERIA FOR COMPLETING THE APPLICATION FORM MUST BE OBSERVED.

1. An up-to-date and official application form must be used when applying. It is not necessary to sign every page of the application form; signing the relevant boxes is sufficient.

2. The application form must be completed completely, clearly, and concisely online.

3. When completing the application form, do not use symbols or abbreviations such as (TC, M., etc., etc., Cum.).

4. Your application will be reviewed free of charge. No fees or charges are charged. Only postage, translation, etc. expenses may be incurred. You can claim these expenses from the court as part of the material damages/costs/expenses at later stages of the application.

5. The official languages of the court are English and French. When completing the application form, you may use one of the official languages of the signatory states of the Convention in the initial stage. Subsequent stages will continue in English or French.

6. You must attach all supporting documents to the application form. In other words, you must include all the court decisions you mention and any documents related to legal action you have taken against them. List the documents you are attaching (in the list section of the application form) one by one. Also, number each document you include, following the application form. (For example, a first-instance court decision should be between 1 and 3 pages.) Do not cross out documents other than numbered, and do not staple them together. There is no need to declare the submitted documents as "true copies of the originals."

7. The relevant boxes must be filled in on the application form, depending on whether there is a natural person/legal entity/representative, etc., specific to the specific case. If the form is being completed as a legal entity, the name of the legal entity's organ manager must also be included.

8. If there is more than one applicant, a separate application form containing complete information must be completed for each. Documents related to the complaints must be attached separately to each individual applicant's form. If there is more than one applicant, each applicant must be assigned a sequential number, such as "Application 1, Applicant 2."

9. If a representative is applying on behalf of the applicant, the applicant must provide separate address and contact information. Entering only the representative's information is grounds for rejection.

10. The application form requires the signatures of both the applicant and, if applicable, their representative. The signatures of both the applicant and the representative must not be the product of the same hand. The absence of the applicant's signature is grounds for rejection.

11. A power of attorney (if applicable) and a photocopy of the applicant's ID must also be attached to the application form.

12. The boxes for the state or states against which the application is directed must be checked. They cannot be left blank. Failure to do so is grounds for rejection.

13. The gender box must be checked; it cannot be left blank. Failure to do so is grounds for rejection.

14. The date that must be indicated on the application form is the date the individual applicant or their representative signed the document.

15. As a general rule, the information and documents you submit in your application, including information about the applicant and third parties, will be publicly available. If you wish your identity to remain confidential, you can indicate this in the "Explanations" section of the application form.

16. If the application form is deemed insufficient, you may attach additional documents to your application.

• If necessary, a separate document containing additional information and explanations may be submitted as an attachment to the application form. This additional document, containing additional information and explanations, must not exceed 20 pages in total. Decisions and documents related to the application are excluded from this 20-page limit. However, this does not mean that you can begin your explanations on the application form and continue until the entire 20 pages are filled. These 20 pages must only supplement the description of the events, complaints, and compliance with the admissibility criteria, which must be concisely stated on the relevant pages of the form. New complaints cannot be included in the attachment; the attachment may only be used to develop existing complaints. Information regarding additional documents can be found in the Information Note on Completing the Application Form. https://www.echr.coe.int/)

17. If you are requesting pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages, you must specify this in the application form. (Request for just compensation.) Indeed, if the applicant does not request compensation, the court cannot award compensation ex officio.

18. It should be noted that the ECtHR does not have the authority to change, overturn, overturn, or uphold national court decisions. The ECtHR should not be considered an appeals authority.

19. Furthermore, unlike the Constitutional Court, the ECtHR does not have a procedure for requesting interim measures. Interim measures are only issued in cases of serious and life-threatening danger, particularly in cases of torture and deportation. All other requests for interim measures are rejected. Since admissibility and merits are examined together at the ECtHR, requests for interim measures other than these may result in the outright rejection of your application. It is important to note that the procedure for requesting interim measures will be discussed in detail below.

C. ATTENTION SHOULD BE PAID TO THE EXPLANATIONS REGARDING THE SECTIONS IN THE APPLICATION FORM.

1. "E. Description of Events Section": This section is mandatory and serves as a summary of the cases. Explanations should be provided regarding which court decisions were made and on what grounds. Use clear and concise language in your explanations. Provide precise dates. State the events chronologically, in the order in which they occurred. If your complaints relate to more than one issue (for example, if different cases are involved), explain each issue separately. In this section, you may mention whether you have a claim for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages (if any). However, you are not required to specify the amount of pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages; you may simply state that you have a claim for just compensation. Explanations regarding the just compensation claim will be detailed below.

2. F. Statement of the Convention and/or Protocol violations alleged by the applicant and the basis for the allegations. For each complaint you submit, clearly and concisely state which articles of the Convention or Protocol were violated and how. You must state which provisions of the Convention your complaint is based on and why the events you describe constitute a violation of these provisions. Such explanations should be provided separately for each complaint. You may also include precedents regarding violations in this section.

Example:
Article 5 § 1 (Right to liberty and security) >>>>>>>> "The client's right to liberty and security has been violated due to unjustified and unlawful detention."

3. "G. Compliance with the admissibility criteria established under Article 35, paragraph 1, of the Convention (Explanations on the exhaustion of domestic remedies and the four-month rule); In this section, you must demonstrate that you have given the national authorities the opportunity to prevent or rectify the alleged violations of the convention before invoking the Court's international jurisdiction. In other words, you must show, in a CONCISE AND CLEAR manner, that you have exhausted all domestic remedies available in the relevant country, the legal remedies applied, the court decisions, and the remedies you have appealed against these decisions. This is the first section the court examines. The court determines whether domestic remedies have been exhausted by reviewing this section. In this section, you must provide the following information for each complaint you raise under the Convention or the Protocols:

• The exact date of the final decision, the name of the court that issued the decision, and the nature of the decision;
• The dates of decisions issued by lower courts or other authorities in the period leading up to the final decision;
• The case file number in domestic law.
• The notification document confirming that you have been informed of the final decision. This document is crucial for determining the four-month period.

D. JUSTICE COMPENSATION CLAIMS
Regarding the submission of just satisfaction claims;
The deadlines and other formal requirements for the submission of just satisfaction claims are stipulated in Article 60 of the Rules of Court. The relevant section reads as follows:
“1. If the Court finds that the applicant's rights guaranteed by the Convention have been violated, an applicant wishing to claim just satisfaction under Article 41 of the Convention must submit a specific request to that effect.
2. The applicant must submit all of their claims, including supporting documents, within the time limit set for submitting their observations on the merits of the case, unless otherwise instructed by the President of the Chamber.
3. The Chamber may reject the applicant's claims, in whole or in part, if the requirements set out in the preceding paragraphs are not complied with…”
In this case, the court requires a specific request in the application form confirming the existence of a just satisfaction claim.

In the initial stage, you do not need to include supporting documents such as the amount of compensation, bank details, etc. in the application form. Once your application is deemed admissible, the court will invite you to submit your observations on the merits “within six weeks.” Based on this invitation, you must reiterate and detail your compensation claims. The Court will reject claims that were specified in the application form but not resubmitted at this stage of the proceedings or submitted outside the allotted timeframe. Therefore, the Court requires that certain claims be supported by appropriate documentary evidence. Otherwise, the Court may not award any compensation.

Based on this invitation (if applicable):
a) Your material damage/loss of income, amount, and supporting documentation (in the case of detention, this may be old payslips).
b) Non-pecuniary damage, amount, supporting documentation, if applicable.
c) Costs and expenses (such as travel, stationery, postage, attorney fees). The Court requires detailed invoices or expense documents as evidence.
d) The bank address and to whom the compensation will be paid, and if payment is requested directly to the representative's account, a "document containing the applicant's declaration to this effect."
e) Compensation amounts are generally requested in euros.
Furthermore, the Court shall decide on the payment date for the compensation on its own initiative, and in principle, this date is three months after the date on which the Court's decision becomes final and binding.

The Ministry of Justice contacts the applicant after three months. The compensation is paid exempt from all taxes and deductions. If this period is exceeded, the Court will order the application of default interest. Generally, the Court will decide to apply the default interest rate calculated by adding a three-point increase to the interest rate applied by the European Central Bank on its marginal credit facilities for the period from the date of exceeding the payment period until the payment date.

E. REQUESTS FOR INTERIM MEASURES

Unlike other international instruments, the ECHR does not explicitly provide for the court's ability to issue interim or preventive measures. However, a request for interim measures may still be made pursuant to Article 39 of the ECtHR's Rules of Procedure. Interim measures are only applicable in exceptional cases. These include:
• A threat to a person's life (issues falling under Article 2 of the Convention, i.e., expulsion and extradition), or
• The prohibition of ill-treatment (prohibition of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment) under Article 3 of the Convention.

In very exceptional cases where the detainee's health is at serious risk, they can be granted in cases of terminal cancer or medical reports and committee reports indicating a very short life expectancy. 99% of accepted interim measures are within the scope of deportation and extradition cases. Therefore, if your application concerns extradition or deportation, it is recommended to request interim measures. In other cases, requesting interim measures could jeopardize the main application submitted beyond the interim measures. Requests for interim measures can be submitted together with the application (see the E. Case Description section) or, if necessary, before the application is submitted due to urgency, online at the "ECHR Rule 39 Site" https://r39.echr.coe.int/Account/Signup or by fax.

The fax numbers designated for requests for interim measures are:
+33 3 90 21 43 50 and
+33 2 88 41 39 00

The ECHR Rule 39 Site should only be used for requests for interim measures under Article 39 of the Rules of Court. Information and documents containing requests outside this scope will not be examined, and such requests will be discarded. Alternatively, requests for interim measures can be submitted by mail. The Court will not consider requests sent via email. However, when submitting requests for interim measures, you can find detailed information in the "Information Required for Submitting Interim Measure Requests" (https://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=applicants/tur&c=) instruction.
ATTORNEY AYŞEGÜL ÖTER
U&T Law - U&T Law Consulting