Abstract:

This essay examines how and where the European Court of Human Rights draw the lines between the guarantee of the right to freedom of association and the protection of national security and public order by a detailed study of the case of Welfare Party v. Turkey. Welfare Party was dissolved in 1998 by the decision of the Constitutional Court of Turkey for its alleged involvement in activities contrary to the secular basis of the national social order. The ECHR upheld this decision and found it compatible with the freedom of association guarantees under the European Convention on Human Rights. This case remains by far the most important in the Court’s line of judgments addressing the compulsory dissolution of a political party. This decision is important for the Welfare Party was widelysupported, well-established, and in power at both the national and the local level at the time of its dissolution. But it can be said that ECHR decision in the Welfare Party case was wrong and unfortunate pertaining to Venice Commission standards. According to the Venice Commission reports, the prohibition or enforced dissolution of political parties may only be justified in the case of parties which advocate the use of violence or use violence as political means to overthrow the democratic Constitutional order, thereby undermining the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution

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