Mammadov v. Azerbaijan (Eur. Ct. H.R.)

Abstract

The judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, or the Court) in Mammadov v. Azerbaijan was the first “infringement procedure” judgment pursuant to Article 46(4) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR, or the Convention). This procedure was introduced to the Convention by Protocol 14, which entered into force in 2010. The idea behind it was that the Committee of Ministers—the body of the Council of Europe that supervises the execution of judgments of the ECtHR—could return the case to the Court to confirm that the responded state had failed to enforce it. Although there are quite a few instances of non-execution, this procedure has not been in use because it is difficult to initiate and its results are uncertain. The Mammadov judgment was a test of the effectiveness of infringement procedures, but it failed to provide a definitive answer as to whether such procedures were effective in terms of state implementation of ECtHR judgments. The applicant in this case was a political prisoner and the Committee of Ministers fruitlessly tried for a number of years to force Azerbaijan to release him. Soon after the Article 46(4) request reached the Court, the Azerbaijani authorities conditionally released the applicant. That said, all other negative consequences of his criminal conviction, such as an inability to run for election, have yet to be removed, so the judgment has not been implemented in full.