KAOS v Turkey

Forum: European Court of Human Rights
INTERIGHTS' role: Advisor to counsel
Keywords: Discrimination, expression, sexual orientation

This case concerns the confiscation of the whole print-run of an issue of the flagship publication produced and distributed by KAOS GL, an Ankara-based LGBT NGO, from a printing house in 2006. In addition to the seizure, the Turkish authorities initiated criminal proceedings against Umut Güner, the head of KAOS GL and editor of the publication, proceedings which are still pending before domestic courts. The confiscated issue of the magazine had a thematic focus on pornography and the role it plays in the lives of LGBT people. It included articles by writers, academics, feminists, painters and photographers, as well two photos of paintings by Taner Ceylan, a well-known Turkish painter, which the authorities described as obscene. The authorities sought to justify the restrictions against the applicant’s freedom of speech on the basis of the ban on obscene publications in the Turkish Criminal Code. The applicants argue before the Court that their rights under Article 10 (freedom of speech) and 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights have been breached.

INTERIGHTS acts in this case as advisor to the applicant’s counsel, Istanbul-based lawyer Oya Aydin. 

Click here to read the applicant's observations and here to read the third party intervention.

For further details contact Constantin Cojocariu, Europe Lawyer.