Actual challenges for the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights

Jerzy Jaskiernia

doi:10.31743/recl.12447

Abstract

The author analyzes the problem of the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). In light of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), a special role in its control mechanism is played by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. Despite the measures taken, there have been delays in the execution of judgments or the lack of their implementation for years. The author analyzed this problem in light of the latest reports of the Committee of Ministers and the recommendations of the Parliamentary Assembly. He pointed to the need for greater activity in this process of other bodies of the Council of Europe, including: the Commissioner for Human Rights, the Venice Commission, the CPT, the ECRI as well as institutions of the civil society. In the last decade, the interest of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in this matter has clearly increased. The author postulates that parliamentarians sitting in this body should be more active in this regard in their countries. They have instruments of control on the executive power, which could be used to increase the effectiveness of the execution of the ECtHR’s judgements.

Highlights

The European Convention of Human Rights1, and its controlling system (The European Court of Human Rights, The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe) is considered as the most significant and most effective regional system of the protection of human rights2, as compared with other human rights regional systems3
Abstract:The author analyzes the problem of the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)
In light of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), a special role in its control mechanism is played by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe

Summary

Introduction

The European Convention of Human Rights, and its controlling system (The European Court of Human Rights, The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe) is considered as the most significant and most effective regional system of the protection of human rights, as compared with other human rights regional systems3 It involves a supranational mechanism which enables the individuals to achieve their right on the international level. In the human rights courts, including the ECtHR, the central role played by the notion of consensus in the case law. ‘European consensus’ is a tool of interpretation used by the European Court of Human Rights as a means to identify evolution in the laws and practices of national legal systems when addressing morally sensitive or politically controversial human rights questions. 13 Rory O’Conell, Law, democracy and the European Court of Human Rights (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 38. The ECtHR’ case-law on freedom of expression and media and journalistic freedoms has been widely analyzed

Judicial activism

Areas of the human rights protection

Findings

Final comment