48,466
edits
European Court of Human Rights on Shariah Law: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
European Court of Human Rights on Shariah Law (view source)
Revision as of 23:14, 31 July 2014
, 31 July 2014no edit summary
| [checked revision] | [checked revision] |
mNo edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| (7 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
[[File:European Court of Human Rights logo.svg|right|thumb]] | |||
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) | The '''European Court of Human Rights''' (ECtHR; French: ''Cour européenne des droits de l’homme'') is a supra-national or international court established on January 21, 1959 by the European Convention on Human Rights. It hears applications alleging that a contracting state has breached one or more of the human rights provisions concerning civil and political rights set out in the Convention and its protocols. The Convention was adopted within the context of the Council of Europe, and all of its 47 member states are contracting parties to the Convention. The Court is based in Strasbourg, [[France]]. | ||
==Shari'ah== | |||
== | With the banning of the Welfare Party (''Refah Partisi'', RP), an [[Islam|Islamist]] political party in [[Turkey]], and a further sanction in the form of a ban on its leaders sitting in Parliament or holding certain other forms of political office for a period of five years, the European Court of Human Rights determined on July 31, 2001, that "the institution of Sharia law and a theocratic regime, were incompatible with the requirements of a democratic society." The Court held that the sanctions imposed on the applicants could reasonably be considered to meet a pressing social need for the protection of democratic society, since, "on the pretext of giving a different meaning to the principle of secularism, the leaders of the Refah Partisi had declared their intention to establish a plurality of legal systems based on differences in religious belief, to institute Islamic law (the Sharia), a system of law that was in marked contrast to the values embodied in the Convention."<ref name="ECtHR2001">[{{Reference archive|1=http://web.archive.org/web/20010811161803/http://www.echr.coe.int/Eng/Press/2001/July/RefahPartisi2001jude.htm|2=2013-09-14}} ECtHR Judgment in the case of Refah Partisi (The Welfare Party) Erbakan, Kazan and Tekdal v Turkey] (Press Release 31.7.2001; Judgment 31.7.2001)</ref> | ||
===Press Release (July 2001)=== | The ban was upheld by the ECtHR on February 13, 2003. Noting that the Welfare Party had pledged to set up a regime based on the [[Shariah|Shari'ah]], the Court found that, "a sharia-based regime was incompatible with the Convention, in particular, as regards the rules of criminal law and procedure, the place given to women in the legal order and its interference in all spheres of private and public life in accordance with religious precepts."<ref name="ECtHR2003a">European Court of Human Rights, [{{Reference archive|1=http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Annual_report_2003_ENG.pdf|2=2013-09-14}} "Annual Report 2003"], (2004) pp. 5-6.</ref> It considered that "sharia, which faithfully reflects the dogmas and divine rules laid down by religion, is stable and invariable."<ref name="ECtHR2003">European Court of Human Rights, [{{Reference archive|1=http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Annual_report_2003_ENG.pdf|2=2013-09-14}} "Annual Report 2003"], (2004) p. 21.</ref> | ||
===Texts=== | |||
====Press Release (July 2001)==== | |||
{{Quote||<center>JUDGMENT IN THE CASE OF REFAH PARTISI (THE WELFARE PARTY) ERBAKAN, KAZAN AND TEKDAL v. TURKEY</center> | {{Quote||<center>JUDGMENT IN THE CASE OF REFAH PARTISI (THE WELFARE PARTY) ERBAKAN, KAZAN AND TEKDAL v. TURKEY</center> | ||
| Line 56: | Line 60: | ||
''The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. On 1 November 1998 a full-time Court was established, replacing the original two-tier system of a part-time Commission and Court.''<ref name="ECtHR2001"></ref>}} | ''The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. On 1 November 1998 a full-time Court was established, replacing the original two-tier system of a part-time Commission and Court.''<ref name="ECtHR2001"></ref>}} | ||
===Annual Report 2003 (May 2004)=== | ====Annual Report 2003 (May 2004)==== | ||
From the Foreword by Luzius Wildhaber, the President of the European Court of Human Rights (November 1, 1998 – January 18, 2007): | |||
{{Quote||The Court’s Annual Reports always provide an ideal opportunity to look back over the past year and to take stock of the events that marked it. So what is to be gleaned from 2003? | |||
The first thing that stands out every year is the way in which, through the Court’s caselaw, solutions to a wide range of situations and issues are to be found in the handful of substantive Convention provisions.<BR>. . .<BR> | |||
Out of the 703 judgments delivered in 2003, I have selected two which, through both their differences and their complementarity, reflect the dual role played by the Court. These are the judgments in the cases of Refah Partisi (the Welfare Party) and Others v. Turkey<ref>[GC], nos. 41340/98, 41342/98, 41343/98 and 41344/98, to be reported in ECHR 2003-II.</ref> and Jakupovic v. Austria,<ref>No. 36757/97.</ref> which were delivered on 13 and 6 February 2003 respectively. | |||
The first is a unanimous Grand Chamber decision and is one of a series of judgments over the past few years in which the Court has sought to define the bases of the democratic system on which the Convention is founded.<BR>. . .<BR> | |||
the Court, aided by the pan-European consensus provided by the Convention, has a role to play in identifying the constituent elements of democracy and in reminding everyone of the minimum essential requirements of a political system if human rights within the meaning of the Convention are to be protected. It has in the past applied itself to establishing the basic principles of the rule of law, the role of political parties, and the limits on freedom of political expression and parliamentary immunity. In Refah Partisi, it carried out a thorough examination of the relationship between the Convention, democracy, political parties and religion, and found that a sharia-based regime was incompatible with the Convention, in particular, as regards the rules of criminal law and procedure, the place given to women in the legal order and its interference in all spheres of private and public life in accordance with religious precepts.<ref name="ECtHR2003a"></ref>}} | |||
From the speech given by Luzius Wildhaber on the occasion of the opening of the judicial year, January 22, 2004: | |||
{{Quote||As I do every year, I will tonight outline some of the main messages which emerge from our case-law over the past year. This year I shall talk about four cases. | {{Quote||As I do every year, I will tonight outline some of the main messages which emerge from our case-law over the past year. This year I shall talk about four cases. | ||
| Line 75: | Line 91: | ||
==External Links== | ==External Links== | ||
*{{external link| url = http://politicsreligion.eu/issues-we-work-on/secularism-and-sharia-law/| title = Secularism and sharia law| publisher = The European Parliament Platform for Secularism in Politics| author = | date = August 2010| archiveurl = http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpoliticsreligion.eu%2Fissues-we-work-on%2Fsecularism-and-sharia-law%2F&date=2013-09-14<!-- http://archive.is/8An6G -->| deadurl = no}} | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||