Chapter 7 • The Right to a Fair Trial: Part II – From Trial to Final Judgement The European Court of Human Rights held in several cases that National Security Courts trying civilians in Turkey lacked the independence and impartiality required by article 6(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights and could not, consequently, guarantee the applicants’ right to a fair hearing. The reason why the National Security Courts failed to comply with the requirements of article 6(1) in this respect was that one of their three members was a military judge belonging to the army and subject to military discipline and assessment reports; further, the term of office of National Security Court judges was only a renewable period of four years.250 ***** What follows from these few examples of the international case-law on this matter is that all courts trying civilians, whether ordinary or special, including military tribunals, must be independent and impartial so as to be able to guarantee a fair hearing to the accused at all times. All courts trying civilians, whether ordinary or special courts, must at all times be independent and impartial and respect due process guarantees. 8. The Right to a Fair Trial in Public Emergencies The right to due process in public emergencies will be dealt with in Chapter 16. Suffice it to point out here that, although the articles on fair trial in the International Covenant and the American and European Conventions do not, as such, form part of the list of non-derogable rights in article 4(2) of the Covenant, article 27(2)of the American Convention and article 15(2) of the European Convention, this in no way means that these provisions can be derogated from at will. ***** With regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Human Rights Committee has stated in its General Comment No. 13 that “If States parties decide in circumstances of a public emergency as contemplated by article 4 to derogate from normal procedures required under article 14, they should ensure that such derogations do not exceed those strictly required by the exigencies of the actual situation, and respect the other conditions in paragraph 1 of article 14.”251 250 Eur. Court HR, Case of Çiraklar v. Turkey, judgment of 28 October 1998, Reports 1998-VII, pp. 3072-3074, paras. 37-41. 251 United Nations Compilation of General Comments, p. 123, para. 4. Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers 311