European Convention on Human Rights—applicability to acts performed outside national territory— acts in Northern Cyprus possibly within Turkish jurisdiction—territorial limitation of declarations of acceptance—dynamic interpretation of provisions on enforcement

Abstract

Loizidou v. Turkey. 310 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A).European Court of Human Rights, March 23, 1995.The applicant, a Greek Cypriot woman, stated that since July 20, 1974, Turkish troops had prevented her from returning to land in Northern Cyprus that she owned and had intended to use, inter alia, for her family home. Furdiermore, she alleged that her arrest and detention by Turkish Cypriot policemen for ten hours after she had crossed die cease-fire line in 1989, when participating in a women's march aimed at asserting the Greek Cypriot refugees’ right to return to their homes, violated her human rights. Rejecting in part die preliminary objections raised by the respondent Government, die Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights held that die facts of die case are capable of falling widiin Turkish jurisdiction as a result of die presence of Turkish troops on the territory of Cyprus, so that the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) may be applicable to these acts.