Individual Application

Other subjects related to Individual Application

For the examination of merits of an individual application to the Constitutional Court, the right alleged to be intervened by public authorities should be guaranteed by the Constitution and secured under the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention) and its additional protocols ratified by Turkey. In other words, it is not possible to give admissibility decision for an application filed for alleged violation of a right that is not jointly covered by the Constitution and the Convention.

The starting date for the competence of the Constitutional Court in individual applications is 23/9/2012. So, the Court can examine individual applications to be lodged against final acts and decisions that are finalized after 23/9/2012.

The individual application should be made within thirty days starting from the date of the final decision after the exhaustion of legal remedies or from the date when the violation is known if no remedies are envisaged.

Claims of violations that can be the subject of individual application will be examined only if there is an act, action or neglect by the bodies who exercise the public power of the State of Republic of Turkey or an act or neglect that can be attributed to public authority. On the other hand, individual application cannot be filed in principle against acts of private persons. Exception to the rule which stipulates that individual application cannot be filed against acts of private persons or institutions is that public authorities have a positive obligation in prevention of violations of constitutional rights.

Individual application can only be introduced by those whose actual and personal rights are directly affected by an act, action or neglect claimed to result in violation. Only individuals who personally become a victim due to violation of a fundamental right may resort to the remedy of individual application. Therefore, individual application is not designed as an abstract application or actio popularis.

Since individual application procedure is not regulated as a remedy that allows the claim of concrete unconstitutionality of a public regulation, legislative procedures (laws, bylaws etc.) and regulatory procedures of administration (internal rules, regulations etc.) cannot be subject of an individual application directly. In addition, an individual application cannot be filed in any way whatsoever against judgments of the Constitutional Court and acts excluded from judicial review by the Constitution.