Your trusted source

The Council of Europe has published its annual report on the implementation of judgements of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), stating the 10-year reform process has brought clear results.

The report from the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers says the long-term effectiveness of the European Convention on Human Rights have clearly improved the implementation of judgments from the European court in Strasbourg.

The report states that 2,073 leading cases, highlighting important structural problems, have been closed since the “Interlaken” reform process began in 2010, due to constitutional, legislative and other significant reforms introduced by member states with the help of the Council of Europe.

In addition, 6,796 repetitive cases have been closed by the committee in the last two years alone as a result of steps taken by the member states to provide redress, including damages, to individual applicants.

The number of leading cases still pending was down to 1,248 at the end of 2018, the lowest figure since 2010, and the total number of cases yet to be fully implemented – including repetitive cases – reached its lowest level since 2006.

“Judgments from the European Court of Human Rights have improved people’s lives in many different ways across the whole continent, but they mean little if they are not put into practice,” said Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland.

According to the report, Armenia saw an important increase in just satisfaction awarded in 2018. The country had a total of 36 pending cases in 2018, an 20% increase as compared to 2017. The total number of cases closed rose from 4 to 9.

Over the past year, Armenia paid €195,940 in just satisfaction awarded by the European court, up by 90,000€ from 2017 when the sum stood at €106,665.