Special compensation regimes for violations of human rights in Turkish law: A fast track remedy or no remedy at all?

Abstract

As part of its international and domestic legal obligations, Turkey is required to provide available, adequate, effective, prompt and appropriate remedies when human rights are violated. In recent years, Turkey has introduced special compensation regimes as a remedy for particular forms of violation, occurring predominantly on a systemic basis, and which had been repetitively identified by the European Court of Human Rights in its judgments. Although these regimes were designed to prevent systemic violations from recurring in the future, to what extent these regimes are effective in practice and do in fact bring individual justice remain crucial questions. This article aims to explore these questions while examining the main features of the special compensation regimes.