European Court of Human Rights

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This article refers to the European Court of Human Rights, a Council of Europe institution; it should not be confused with the separate European Court of Justice, which is the Supreme Court of the European Union (EU).

European Court of Human Rights building in Strasbourg

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), often referred to informally as the "Strasbourg Court", was created to systematise the hearing of human rights complaints against States Parties to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, adopted by the Council of Europe in 1950 (at present, all member states of the Council of Europe are also parties to the Convention, but there is no necessary connection between the two). The Court's mission is to enforce the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, by ruling over complaints against human rights violations committed by States Parties, and brought to the Court either by other States Parties or by individuals subject to the jurisdiction of a State Party.

1 History and structure
2 Procedure
3 Judges
4 Reform
5 Notable cases
- 5.1 Other cases
6 Architecture
7 See also
8 Notes
9 External links

[edit] History and structure

The current incarnation of the court was instituted on November 1, 1998, replacing the then existing enforcement mechanisms, which included the European Commission of Human Rights (created in 1954) and the previous, limited Court of Human Rights, which was created in 1950.

The new court was the result of the ratification of Protocol 11, an amendment to the Convention, which was ratified in November 1998. Judges were subsequently elected by the Council of Europe, and the court was opened approximately one year later.

The court consists of a number of judges equal to the number of States Parties, which currently stand at forty-six. Each judge is elected in respect of a State Party; despite this correspondence, however, there are no requirements that each state be represented on the court, nor are there limits to the number of judges belonging to any nationality (e.g. Mr Caflish is a Swiss national elected in respect of Liechtenstein). Judges are assumed to be impartial arbiters, rather than representatives of any nation.

The court is divided into five "Sections", each of which consists of a geographic and gender-balanced selection of justices. The entire court elects a President and five Section Presidents, two of whom also serve as Vice-Presidents of the court. All terms last for three years. Each section selects a Chamber, which consists of the Section President and a rotating selection of six other justices. The court also maintains a 17-member Grand Chamber, which consists of the President, Vice-Presidents, and Section Presidents, in addition to a rotating selection of justices from one of two balanced groups. The selection of judges alternates between the groups every nine months.

[edit] Procedure

Complaints of violations by member states are filed in Strasbourg, and are assigned to a Section. Each complaint is first heard by a committee of three judges, which may unanimously vote to strike any complaint without further examination. Once past committee, the complaint is heard and decided by a full Chamber. Decisions of great importance may be appealed to the Grand Chamber. Any decisions of the court are binding on the member states.

It is the role of the Committee of Ministers to supervise the execution of court judgements, though they have no formal means of forcing member countries to comply. However, the ultimate sanction of non-compliance is expulsion from the Council of Europe and thus becoming a 'pariah' state within Europe. Furthermore, the European Union takes a keen interest in the Convention and Court (and its jurisprudence) so would not look kindly upon any EU member state that did not fulfill its Convention obligations.

[edit] Judges

As of 19 January 2007 (in order of precedence):^[1]

Mr Jean-Paul Costa, President (French)
Mr Christos Rozakis, Vice-President (Greek)
Sir Nicolas Bratza, Vice-President (British)
Mr Boštjan Zupančič, Section President (Slovenian)
Mr Peer Lorenzen, Section President (Danish)
Mrs Françoise Tulkens Section President (Belgian)
Mr Giovanni Bonello (Maltese)
Mr Loukis Loucaides (Cypriot)
Mr Ireneu Cabral Barreto (Portuguese)
Mr Riza Türmen (Turkish)
Mr Corneliu Bîrsan (Romanian)
Mr Karel Jungwiert (Czech)
Mr Volodymyr Butkevych (Ukrainian)
Mr Josep Casadevall (Andorran)
Mrs Nina Vajić (Croatian)
Mr John Hedigan (Irish)
Mrs Margarita Tsatsa-Nikolovska (citizen of “The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”)
Mr András Baka (Hungarian)
Mr Rait Maruste (Estonian)
Mr Kristaq Traja (Albanian)
Mrs Snejana Botoucharova (Bulgarian)
Mr Mindia Ugrekhelidze (Georgian)
Mr Anatoly Kovler (Russian)
Mr Vladimiro Zagrebelsky (Italian)
Mrs Antonella Mularoni (San Marinese)
Mrs Elisabeth Steiner (Austrian)
Mr Stanislav Pavlovschi (Moldovan)
Mr Lech Garlicki (Polish)
Mr Javier Borrego Borrego (Spanish)
Mrs Elisabet Fura-Sandström (Swedish)
Mrs Alvina Gyulumyan (Armenian)
Mr Khanlar Hajiyev (Azerbaijani)
Mrs Ljiljana Mijović (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Mr Dean Spielmann (Luxemburger)
Mrs Renate Jaeger (German)
Mr Egbert Myjer (Dutch)
Mr Sverre Erik Jebens (Norwegian)
Mr Davið Þór Björgvinsson (Icelandic)
Mrs Danutė Jočienė (Lithuanian)
Mr Ján Šikuta (Slovakian)
Mr Dragoljub Popović (Serbia and Montenegro)
Mrs Ineta Ziemele (Latvian)
Mr Mark Villiger (Swiss; elected as the judge in respect of Liechtenstein)
Mrs Isabelle Berro-Lefevre (Monegasque)
Mrs Päivi Hirvelä (Finnish)
Mr Giorgio Malinverni (Swiss)

The Plenary Court elects the Registrar and one or more Deputy Registrars. The Registrar is the head of the Registry, which performs legal and administrative tasks on behalf of the Court. The Registrar and Deputy Registrar as of 4 January 2007^[1] are:

Mr Erik Fribergh, Registrar (Swedish)
Mr Michael O’Boyle, Deputy Registrar (Irish)

[edit] Reform

Due to the increase in awareness of European citizens of their rights under the Convention, the Court was becoming a victim of its own success. Some cases were taking up to five years before being heard and there was a significant backlog. For example, according to the Human Rights Information Bulletin (issued by the Council of Europe), between 1 November 2003 and 29 February 2004 the Court dealt with 7315 cases, of which 6255 were declared inadmissible.

Working on the principle that 'justice delayed is justice denied', the Council of Europe set up a working party to consider ways of improving the efficiency of the Court. This resulted in an amendment to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Protocol 14. This new protocol, which requires universal ratification by all Council of Europe member states to come into force, makes a number of changes:

A single judge can decide on a case's admissibility. Before, three judges decided.
Where cases are broadly similar to ones brought previously before the Court, and are essentially due to a member state failing to change their domestic law to correct a failing highlighted by that previous judgement, the case can be decided by three judges rather than the seven-judge Chamber.
A case may not be admissible if it is considered that the applicant has not suffered 'significant disadvantage'. However, this is not a 'hard and fast' rule.
A member state can be brought before the court by the Committee of Ministers if that state refuses to enforce a judgment against it.
The Committee of Ministers can ask the Court for an 'interpretation' of a judgement to help determine the best way for a member state to comply with it.

Amnesty International has expressed concern that these changes to the admissibility criteria will mean individuals may lose the ability to 'gain redress for human rights violations'^[2]

[edit] Notable cases

For the first time since the Russian military invaded Chechnya in 1999, the court has agreed to hear cases of human rights abuse brought forward by Chechen civilians against Russia.

In 1980, the court ruled out the foetal right to sue the mother carrying the foetus. In Paton v. United Kingdom, it was discovered that the life of foetus is "intimately connected with, and cannot be regarded in isolation from, the life of the pregnant woman".

In December 1977, the court ruled that the government of the United Kingdom was guilty of "inhuman and degrading treatment", of men interned without trial, by the court, following a case brought by the Republic of Ireland (Case No. 5310/71). The court found that while their internment was a violation of the convention rights, it was justifiable in the circumstances; it however ruled that the practice of the five techniques and the practice of beating prisoners constituted inhumane and degrading punishment in violation of the convention, although not torture. Legally, Ireland v. United Kingdom is notable since the British government had already publicly admitted and promised to refrain from all the violations the court found it guilty of. The UK tried to argue that having done so, the Irish litigation was pointless, relying on principles of international law accepted by the ICJ; however, the ECHR held that even though the UK had already made these admissions and undertakings, the case could still be considered, since ruling on it would serve the purposes of the development of Convention law.^[3]

In 2003 and 2004, the court ruled that "that sharia is incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy" (13/02/2003) .^[4], because the sharia rules on inheritance, women rights and religious freedom violate human rights as established in the European Convention on Human Rights.

In 2006 the case for Cornwall, in respect of alleged violations of the European Convention of Human Rights, Articles 6, (independent and impartial courts); 8, (respect family life); 10, (freedom of expression); 13, (violations by officials); 14 with Protocol 12, (discrimination on the grounds of association with a national minority, property, birth or other status); 17, (the official destruction of rights); Protocol 1 Article 1, (property rights) with 385 supporting documents, was submitted by members of the Cornish Stannary Parliament to the European Court of Human Rights.

[edit] Other cases

Dudgeon v. United Kingdom: sodomy and the right to privacy
Steel v. United Kingdom, the McLibel case: legal aid in libel cases
Murray v. United Kingdom: anti-terrorism laws
John Murray v. United Kingdom: right to silence
Funke v. France: right to a fair trial
List of LGBT-related cases
Alexei Mikheyev v. Russia ^[5]: €250,000 compensation for police brutality
ASLEF v. United Kingdom: right of unions to expel members

[edit] Architecture

The building, which houses the court chambers and Registry (administration), was designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership and completed in 1995. The design is meant to reflect, amongst other things, the two distinct components of the Commission and Court (as it then was). Wide scale use of glass emphasises the 'openness' of the court to European citizens.