THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND TURKEY’S “KURDISH QUESTION”: THE ROLES OF LITIGANTS, HRO’S AND THE COURT IN FRAMING AND NARRATING RIGHTS

This qualitative socio-legal research focuses on the role of litigation at the European Court of Human Rights in framing and legally narrating the relationship between the Turkish state and its Kurdish minority, concentrating on cases having to do with prisons and hunger striking. It will investigate the arguments made by litigants and HROs, and decisions made and reasoning provided by the Court. The three primary expected outcomes of the research are: (1) to provide the necessary background research and a draft socio-legal report on these issues that will inform a subsequent publishable paper on supranational rights-claiming and its implications in the context of Turkish-Kurdish relations; (2) to provide broader context to Professor Bartholomew’s research project on Kurdish hunger striking in Turkey as a means of creating rights and demanding constitutional recognition; and, (3) to develop linkages with scholars in Istanbul whose research is on Turkish-Kurdish relations, the ECHR, and democratic politics.

Faculty Supervisor:

Amy Bartholomew

Student:

Partner:

Koc University

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

Carleton University

Program: