Council of State Annuls Risk-Based Audit Rules for Associations

On May 28, 2025, Turkey’s Council of State, 10th Chamber, with Case No: 2021/6971, Decision No: 2025/2774, ruled to annul several provisions of a 2021 amendment to the Regulation on Associations.

The lawsuit was filed by the Freedom of Expression Association (İfade Özgürlüğü Derneği-İFÖD) challenging Article 16 of the amendment published in the Official Gazette on October 21, 2021. The annulled rules allowed the Ministry of Interior’s Directorate General for Relations with Civil Society to determine the procedures of risk analyses on associations for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism purposes, classify them into risk groups (high, medium, low), and assign different audit frequencies and officials accordingly.

The Court, emphasizing the fundamental importance of the legal certainty principle, found no clear legal basis in the Associations Law for these detailed procedures and held that they violated the principles of legal certainty and foreseeability. It concluded that the power to regulate said risk analysis queries cannot be left to the discretionary of administrative authorities and must have legal ground. It also annulled Article 3 accordingly, which mandated trainings and workshops based on risk levels. In addition, the Court rejected İFÖD’s request to annul the general principles stating that audits can be conducted on risk-based approach, deeming them having a legal basis and consistent with existing laws. The decision underlines that regulatory powers affecting fundamental rights must be clearly grounded in law.