Araç v. Turkey (9907/02)

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Date 20080923
Article 6(1)
Decision violation

Violation of Article 6 § 1 (fairness)

Araç v. Turkey (no. 9907/02)

The applicant, Emine Araç, is a Turkish national who was born in 1973 and lives in Istanbul.

While studying theology at the İnönü Theology Faculty in Malatya she applied for enrolment at the Theology Faculty of the University of Marmara. The university authorities refused to accept her on the ground that she had not supplied an identity photograph showing her unveiled face, as required by the regulations then in force. The applicant appealed unsuccessfully against the university’s refusal. Relying on Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial), she complained that the proceedings in the Supreme Administrative Court had not been fair.

In the first place, the Court considered that the applicant’s right of access to an institution of higher education was a civil right and that Article 6 was therefore applicable in the case. It went on to observe that it had previously considered complaints identical to the one raised by the applicant in other cases in which it had found violations of Article 6 § 1. It accordingly held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 6 § 1 because the applicant’s right to adversarial proceedings before the Supreme Administrative Court had been infringed and ruled that the finding of a violation constituted in itself sufficient just satisfaction for the non-pecuniary damage she had suffered. It awarded her EUR 1,500 for costs and expenses. (The judgment is available only in French.)