The Aarhus Convention and the victim status before the European Court of Human Rights

The author criticizes the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for its decision in Cangi and Others v. Turkey, where the Court declared the application of four applicants inadmissible because they did not live near the Kışladağ-Uşak open-pit gold mine. The commentary argues that by ignoring the Aarhus Convention, the Court applied a strict reading of Article 6 ECHR that contradicts its own previous flexible approach to the standing of environmental associations and individuals who are not personally affected by a project's proximity.

• In the case of Cangi and Others v. Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) declared the application of four applicants inadmissible because they were not personally affected by the Kışladağ-Uşak open-pit gold mine's operations and did not live in its vicinity.
• The ECtHR found a violation of Article 6 ECHR for two other applicants, ruling that they lacked the opportunity to fully familiarize themselves with the evidence in the case file used by main experts.
• The author contends that the Court's failure to refer to the Aarhus Convention in this case is surprising and inconsistent with previous rulings involving Turkey, such as Taşkın and Others or Okyay and Others, where the Convention was used despite Turkey not being a signatory.
• The Court's strict requirement for direct personal affectation in this case contradicts earlier jurisprudence, such as the Okyay judgment, where living 250 kilometres away from thermal powerplants was not a decisive factor for Article 6 applicability.
• The Court failed to address the potential standing of the applicants' informal movement (ELELE), departing from previous cases where environmental protection associations were granted protection if they sought to recognize the rights of members or had a sufficient link to the dispute.

APA

Kwiedacz-Palosz, M. (2024). The Aarhus Convention and the victim status before the European Court of Human Rights. ClientEarth. https://www.clientearth.org/latest/news/the-aarhus-convention-and-the-victim-status-before-the-european-court-of-human-rights/

Chicago

Kwiedacz-Palosz, Malgorzata. The Aarhus Convention and the victim status before the European Court of Human Rights. ClientEarth, 2024. https://www.clientearth.org/latest/news/the-aarhus-convention-and-the-victim-status-before-the-european-court-of-human-rights/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kwiedacz-Palosz |first1=Malgorzata |title=The Aarhus Convention and the victim status before the European Court of Human Rights |publisher=ClientEarth |date=22 February 2024 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/latest/news/the-aarhus-convention-and-the-victim-status-before-the-european-court-of-human-rights/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kwiedaczpalosz2024aarhus, author = {Kwiedacz-Palosz, Malgorzata}, title = {{The Aarhus Convention and the victim status before the European Court of Human Rights}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2024}, month = feb, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/latest/news/the-aarhus-convention-and-the-victim-status-before-the-european-court-of-human-rights/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }