Başak Çali
About/Bio
Başak Çalı is head of research at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights and Professor of International Law at the University of Oxford and Professor of International Law and director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School, Berlin.
Recently Published
In memoriam: Professor Françoise Hampson
April 26, 2025
Başak Çali
September 1996. The first day of the International Law of Armed Conflict course at the University of Essex. Professor Françoise Hampson was the name being talked about in the corridors in the brutalist building that housed the lecture theatre. One classmate told me that Françoise was the sole reason she came to Essex to do the LLM in…
Watch this space, Take 2: Execution of Strasbourg’s Landmark Climate Mitigation Judgment Verein KlimaSeniorinnen v. Switzerland
March 12, 2025
Başak Çali
In July 2024, I wrote, together with Chhaya Bharwaj, that the execution of the first climate mitigation judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, Verein KlimaSeniorinnen v. Switzerland, was a space to watch. This was because the Court found, for the first time, that the lack of an adequate legislative framework to mitigate…
Watch this space: Executing Article 8 Compliant Climate Mitigation Legislation in Verein KlimaSeniorinnen v. Switzerland
Now that the European Court of Human Rights delivered its first violation judgment in a human rights-based lack of climate mitigation ambition case, in Verein Klima Seniorinnen v. Switzerland, all eyes turn to how this judgment will be executed. As with all judgments of the Court, Verein Klima Seniorinnen v. Switzerland is currently pending…
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Popular articles by Başak Çali
Withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention by Turkey: A Testing Problem for the Council of Europe
March 22, 2021
Başak Çali
On Saturday 20 March 2021, Turkey woke up to a historic first – the announcement of its first withdrawal from a human rights treaty by the President. A presidential decision declared that Turkey was leaving the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. This is the convention better known, most ironically,…
Has ‘Control over rights doctrine’ for extra-territorial jurisdiction come of age? Karlsruhe, too, has spoken, now it’s Strasbourg’s turn
July 21, 2020
Başak Çali
The German Constitutional Court (GCC) declared, in its ruling on May 19th, that the surveillance of non-German individuals outside of Germany was unconstitutional. The Court’s judgment on the German Act on the Federal Intelligence Service (Gesetz über den Bundesnachrichtendienst, or the BND-Gesetz) has not attracted enough legal commentary in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Qatar’s Reservations to the ICCPR: Anything new under the VCLT Sun?
September 19, 2019
Başak Çali
On 21 May 2018, Qatar become the third country in the Gulf region to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This followed Kuwait in 1996 and Bahrain in 2006. Qatar’s ratification came with a long list of reservations and statements. That these reservations and statements have similarities to those of its two…