Zehra Foundation and Others v. Turkey, No. 51595/07, ECtHR (Second Section), 10 July 2018

Dissolution of a religious foundation on the ground that it covertly aimed to establish a Kurdish State based on sharia. Organisation of national education in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner. Expression of ideas and opinions contrary to the principle of secularism.

Art. 11 ECHR

1. The legitimacy and the strength of a pluralist democracy stem from the fact that, in principle, it is in the framework of pluralist public debate that democracy fights antidemocratic ideas.

2. Article 11 ECHR does not prevent a Contracting State from taking measures to ensure that an association does not pursue educational policy goals contrary to the values of pluralist democracy and in breach of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Convention.

3. A foundation whose actions were aimed at introducing sharia in a State party to the Convention could hardly be regarded as an association complying with the democratic ideal underlying the whole of the Convention itself.

(In the present case, the Court unanimously found that the dissolution of a foundation by the Turkish authorities on the grounds that its activities covertly aimed to establish a State system based on sharia and the setting-up of educational establishments serving that cause was legitimate).

According to the ECtHR, the national courts, in order to safeguard the specific nature of education in a pluralist democratic society and thus preserve public order and protect the rights of others, have not overstepped their margin of appreciation in finding that there had been a pressing social need to prevent the foundation from achieving its covert project to implement secondary and university education activities with the ultimate goal of establishing a sharia-based regime.
The decision at hand follows in the footsteps of the well-known judgment Refah Partisi v. Turkey the Grand Chamber delivered in 2003, by emphasising the role the principle of secularism plays in the Turkish legal order.