Karaduman and Tandoğan v. Turkey (41296/04)

Date	20080603
Article	8(1)
Decision	violation

Violation of Article 6 § 1 (fairness)

Karaduman and Tandoğan v. Turkey (nos. 41296/04 and 41298/04)

The applicants, Fatma Karaduman and Sevil Tandoğan, are Turkish nationals who were born in 1966 and 1967. The case concerns administrative proceedings brought by the applicants against measures relating to their dismissal from their posts as high-school teachers on account of their persistent refusal to remove Islamic headscarves during lessons, contrary to the clothing rules in force at the relevant time. Relying on Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial), they complained that they had not been allowed to respond to the opinion of Principal State Counsel at the Supreme Administrative Court.

The Court referred to previous cases in which a complaint similar to that of the applicants had been submitted and it had found a violation of Article 6 § 1. It accordingly held, unanimously, that there had been a violation of Article 6 § 1 on account of a breach of the rights to adversarial proceedings before the Supreme Administrative Court, and found that the finding of a violation provided in itself sufficient just satisfaction for the non-pecuniary damage sustained by the applicants. (The judgment is available only in French.)