Context Matters: Michel Rosenfeld on Rethinking His Initial Support of the ECtHR Judgement in Leyla Şahin v. Turkey

In Leyla Şahin v. Turkey (2004), the European Court of Human Rights sided with the Turkish government in prohibiting a medical student to wear the hijab on public university property. Michel Rosenfeld (Benjamine N. Cardozo School of Law) explains why he changed his opinion regarding the Court’s Leyla Şahin judgment and why he believes that, had it been decided in 2026, the case would have required a different approach.

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Brett G. Scharffs on the Evolution of His Thinking About Refah Partisi v. Turkey

In Refah Partisi (the Welfare Party) and Others v. Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights sided with the Turkish Constitutional Court, which had ordered the dissolution of the party based on its being a threat to secular constitutional order. Brett G. Scharffs (International Center for Law and Religion Studies) explains why and how his and his students’ opinions about the Refah Partisi case have changed over the years and why he no longer considers the Court’s decision to be an overreaction.

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Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Türkiye

Mine Yildirim is head of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee’s Freedom of Belief Initiative in Turkey.

Nearly two decades after the 2006 Ülke v. Turkey[1] judgment of the European Court of Human Right (ECtHR), and findings of the United Nations (UN) bodies such as the Human Rights Committee (HRC or the Committee) and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Türkiye still has not recognized the right to conscientious objection to military service. Punitive measures impacting freedom of thought, conscience, and religion and other fundamental rights for conscientious objectors continue to be integral to national policy. The robust recognition of the right to conscientious objection to military service right under international human rights law, within the scope of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, has provided the basis for the legal struggle to put an end to human rights violations that conscientious objectors have experienced in Türkiye.

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