Tezler:

LLM Thesis: An Evaluation of the Human Rights Guarantees and
Procedures under the CSCE Process, the University of Nottingham,
Law Department, September 1992, (Supervisor: Prof. Dr. D.J. HARRIS)

PhD Thesis: Human Rights Norms in CSCE and the Behaviour of a
State: Perceptions of Elities in Turkey, the University of Surrey,
LIS Department, September 1996, (Supervisors: Dr. Peter KANGIS,
Professor Jim RIORDAN)

ABSTRACT FOR LLM THESIS
(Master Tezi Özeti)

In the field of the protection of human rights, apart from various International Conventions through either the United Nations or regional levels, the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe has also important provisions on human rights. Therefore, a study of the examination of the CSCE process is of particular value. The main aim of the dissertation is an attempt to evaluate human rights guarantees and procedures under the CSCE (or Helsinki) process.
 

The dissertation has been divided into three chapters. Before passing on to the chapters an Introduction will be made. The first chapter will be allocated for the historical background of the CSCE process and the legal nature of the HFA. In the second chapter, an attempt will be made to evaluate human rights guarantees. However, this will be limited to the four fundamental rights and freedoms; respectively, the rights of thought, conscience and religion, the right of self-determination, the rights of minorities, the freedom of expression. The third chapter will deal with the procedural aspect of the CSCE process, mainly, the development of the CSCE process and the decision-making will be examined. 

As far as the sources are concerned, as primary sources, various documents such as, inter alia, the Final Act of the CSCE of 1975, the Concluding Document from the Vienna Meeting of 1989, the Charter of Paris for a New Europe of 1990, the Document of Moscow Meeting of 1991, adopted under the CSCE process, have been applied. As secondary sources, many books, articles, periodicals, newspapers have been utilised. References have been made in the form of end notes in chapters. Bibliography has also been listed at the end of the dissertation.

ABSTRACT FOR PhD THESIS
(Doktora Tezi Özeti)

This thesis aims to explore the relationship between human rights provisions of the Conference on Security
and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) and foreign policy and national human rights law. Based on a model
for the separation of these provisions in to substantive and non-substantive, the following
conceptual hypotheses are proposed: (1) that the non-substantive human rights provisions of
the CSCE documents on foreign policy have more influence than the substantive ones on foreign policy
with a human rights objective, and that (2) substantive provisions of these documents have more
influence than non-substantive ones on human rights law.

To test these hypotheses, the case of Turkey was examined. Based on a review of the literature and
guided by the above model, a set of 54 hypotheses were put forward in operational form and a
questionnaire was administered to 98 elites such as: senior functionaries, politicians, editors and
lawyers. Of these, 63 valid responses were received. On the basis of the evidence examined, it was
concluded that the human rights provisions of the CSCE were recognised by the sample as
having some influence on both the domestic and international stance of a country in terms of human
rights. Generally the mean values of scores favoured greater influence by the non-substantive
provisions on foreign policy with a human rights element than did the substantive provisions.
Conversely, the substantive provisions scored higher in terms of their influence on national human rights
law. Of the 54 operational hypotheses, 30 proved to be statistically significant, and most of the others
obtained values supporting the general direction of the hypotheses. On completion of the analysis, the
findings were discussed with another sample of 13 elites, which were not involved in the
previous data collection, with a view to eliciting additional explanations for the observed
phenomena. Notwithstanding the delicate/sensitive nature of the subject being explored, it was
possible to gather sufficient information to support greater depths of analysis.

It was concluded that the model proposing the division of the CSCE provisions in to substantive and non-substantive has proven helpful in the analysis of the influence of such provisions; it has demonstrated that norms with different characteristics will have a different influence on the behaviour of states both regarding their domestic law and their foreign policy. The research has proposed and tested a new normative model for the conceptualisation and analysis of human rights provisions at the national and international level.