Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: democratic backsliding

  • Ufuk Yeşil

The ECtHR’s Demirhan Judgment: The Issue of Systemic Judicial Problems in Turkey

October 21, 2025

By Dr. Ufuk Yeşil On July 22, 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered its judgment in Demirhan and Others v. Türkiye (Demirhan), addressing the convictions of 239 Turkish nationals for alleged membership in the Gülen movement, primarily based on their alleged use of the encrypted messaging application ByLock. Building on the landmark […]

  • Ufuk Yeşil

The ECtHR Judgment in Selahattin Demirtaş v. Türkiye (No. 4): A Landmark Case on Political Repression and Human Rights

August 20, 2025

By Dr. Ufuk Yeşil  On July 8 2025, the European Court of Human Rights’ (the ECtHR or the Court) addressed violations stemming from the prolonged detention of Selahattin Demirtaş, the former HDP co-chair, in Selahattin Demirtaş v. Türkiye (No. 4), exposing systemic judicial abuses targeting political dissent in Türkiye. This blog post analyzes this  judgment, and connects it […]

  • Alain Zysset

An Anxious-Avoidant Court: Adjudicating Democratic Infrastructure in Călin Georgescu v. Romania

May 27, 2025

By Alain Zysset The key feature of an anxious-avoidant attachment style is the ambivalence between seeking connection and seeking withdrawal. This can lead to inconsistent behaviours towards partners, displaying excessive closeness one time and abruptly retreating from the relationship the next time. There are analogous traits of an anxious-avoidant attachment style in the Court’s reasoning […]

  • Ignatius Yordan Nugraha

Ikotity and Others v. Hungary: Restricting the Opposition’s Freedom of Expression through a Wide Margin of Appreciation in the Context of Democratic Backsliding

December 05, 2023

by Ignatius Yordan Nugraha Does the right to freedom of expression imply the right to use posters in parliament to strengthen the point of your expression? In Ikotity and Others v. Hungary, notified in writing on 5 October 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) seems to be sceptical of such a conception. At […]