 at the end of May, with 23,050 cases awaiting a decision, the court’s latest figures showed.){kind=link}
Turkey accounted for 40.6 percent of all applications pending before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) at the end of May, with 23,050 cases awaiting a decision, the court’s latest figures showed.
The Strasbourg court said the total number of applications awaiting examination by judges stood at 56,800 as of May 31. Turkey ranked first among Council of Europe member states, followed by Russia with 6,650 applications, Poland with 3,700, Ukraine with 3,400 and Italy with 2,800.
The figures mean that more than four in 10 pending applications before the court concerned Turkey. Russia accounted for 11.7 percent of the total caseload, while Poland made up 6.5 percent, Ukraine 6 percent and Italy 4.9 percent.
Turkey’s pending caseload has risen sharply since the beginning of the year. ECtHR data showed that 18,450 applications concerning Turkey were pending as of January 1, representing 34.5 percent of the court’s total caseload at the time. By the end of May, the number had increased by 4,600.
In 2025 the ECtHR delivered 74 judgments concerning Turkey, finding at least one violation of the European Convention on Human Rights in 66 cases. Turkey was among the countries with the highest number of violation judgments that year, after Ukraine and Russia.
The most common violation found against Turkey in 2025 concerned the right to a fair trial, with 24 judgments. The right to liberty and security followed, with 21 violations.
Other violations found by the court in cases concerning Turkey included judgments related to the length of proceedings, the right to respect for private and family life, the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment and freedom of expression.
The ECtHR is the international court of the Council of Europe that rules on alleged violations of the European Convention on Human Rights. Turkey has been a party to the convention since 1954 and recognizes the court’s jurisdiction, but its record on implementing the court’s rulings has attracted growing criticism.
Rights groups have warned that Turkey’s failure to implement ECtHR judgments has become a separate source of concern. In a joint briefing published in June 2025, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists and the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project said Turkey’s noncompliance with legally binding ECtHR rulings had “reached a crisis point” and posed a threat to the European human rights system.
The groups said that as of June 2024, Turkey had failed to implement 156 leading judgments and 375 repetitive cases, making it the worst-performing Council of Europe member state in terms of compliance. They cited several high-profile rulings, including those concerning civil society leader Osman Kavala, former pro-Kurdish opposition leader Selahattin Demirtaş and the ECtHR’s Grand Chamber judgment in Yüksel Yalçınkaya v. Turkey.