''Akkoç v. Turkey'' 2000, Nos. 22947 & 8/93, ECHR 2000-X, was a decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on the extent of the

right to life The right to life is the belief that a being has the right to live and, in particular, should not be killed by another entity. The concept of a right to life arises in debates on issues including capital punishment, with some people seeing it as ...

. The case involved the

Kurd ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Ir ...

Zübeyir Akkoç in Turkey who belonged to an outlawed trade union. Both the union member and his wife received

death threat A death threat is a threat, often made anonymously, by one person or a group of people to kill another person or group of people. These threats are often designed to intimidate victims in order to manipulate their behaviour, in which case a deat ...

s, and eventually the man was killed. His widow thus took the case to court, charging that the Turkish government was responsible. The government was not found guilty of murder. However, on the right to life, the ECHR found that the Turkish government knew about the death threats and failed to protect the victim. Thus, the right to life had been violated.

Rhona K.M. Smith Rhona K. M. Smith is a British legal academic. She is professor of international human rights and former head of Newcastle Law School at Newcastle University and is the United Nations special rapporteur for Cambodia. Smith was criticised by the ...

, ''Textbook on International Human Rights'', second edition, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 206. In addition, the state's investigation of the murder was found to be so negligent as to also be an infringement of the right to life.Smith, 207. With respect to international human rights law, it is noted that a government's responsibility regarding the right to life is not "passive." There should be laws against

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

. ''Akkoç'' is a case that examined the "potential grey area" of the "extent to which a State can protect an individual against criminal behaviour."

References

Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights European Court of Human Rights cases involving Turkey 2000 in case law 2000 in Turkey {{case-law-stub

See also

References