12/01/2024 | Writer: Selma Koçak
During the 2021 Pride Week, the stay of execution lawsuit filed against the ban order of Şişli District Governorship on gathering and prolonged sitting, had been rejected on the merits. SPoD and Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week appealed the case, and the court he court overturned the ban order of the district governorship.
Social Policy, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association (SPoD) and İstanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week Committee had filed a stay of execution case against the unlawful ban order of the Şişli District Governorship on gathering and prolonged sitting regarding the 2021 Pride Week, on the same day of the order in 2021. The case, which was rejected on merits, was appealed. Following the appeal, the 10th Administrative Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Administrative Court unanimously overturned the decision of the 10th Istanbul Administrative Court and cancelled the ban imposed by the Şişli District Governorship.
The Court of Appeals found that the Şişli District Governorship had violated its positive obligations and made an unlawful decision by failing to prove that there was a clear, concrete and imminent risk of a crime being committed, as it could not base its ban on any legal grounds and did not even submit a defense to the lawsuits. The court ruled that it is a constitutional right for LGBTI+ people to hold meetings and demonstrations, including picnics. Restrictions on this right can only be imposed in accordance with the law.
SPoD and Pride Week announced the news of winning the case, highlighting the fight for equal citizenship:
“In accordance with this late verdict, we remind all administrative authorities in Turkey that it is an obligation of the law, especially the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court and the ECHR, to protect the rights of LGBTI+ people to assemble and march, just like the dozens of lawsuits we have filed and won in every place where LGBTI+ events were previously banned!
Bans on LGBTI+ Pride marches, which began in 2015, have turned into a growing wave of hatred and attacks across Turkey since 2021. The vindication of thousands of LGBTI+ people who have been detained with torture and ill-treatment while exercising their constitutional rights over the last three years, and hundreds of activists who have been criminalized in trials and in the corridors of courthouses, has been proven once again. We will continue our struggle for equal citizenship in the streets, in the courthouse, at the wheel, at home, without leaving anyone behind! We said it then and we say it now: Neither our picnic, nor our march, nor our existence can be banned!
What happened?
All events, including the vegan picnic in Maçka Park, planned to held as a part of 2021 İstanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week, had been banned unlawfully for 30 days by the Şişli Governorship. Following the ban order, LGBTI+s, who went to Maçka Park for the picnic event, had been subjected to police attack. The attack left one of the picnickers with a broken arm, one was detained for assaulting someone and a criminal case was filed against them.
On the same day, SPoD and Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week had filed a lawsuit to suspend the ban order of the Şişli District Governorship in order to allow the vegan picnic to take place, and the Şişli District Governorship had not responded. The Istanbul 10th Administrative Court, on the other hand, rejected the lawsuit on the grounds that “there would be resistance to the security forces, it is not known who organized the picnic, an uncontrolled gathering could turn into an illegal action by people with an organizational structure and Covid-19 measures” instead of the district governorship. With this rejection, the court deemed it illegal for LGBTI+ people to gather for any purpose, including picnics, in Maçka Park for 30 days and to sit for any length of time.”
Tags: human rights
