ANNUAL REPORT 2015 Provisional Version European Court of Human Rights Annual Report 2015 Provisional Version Registry of the European Court of Human Rights Strasbourg, 2016 Anyone wishing to reproduce and/or translate all or part of this report in print, online or in any other format should contact [email protected] for further instructions. When citing this report, please acknowledge the source “Annual Report 2015 of the European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe.” © Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights, 2015 This report is available to download at www.echr.coe.int (Publications/Reports/Annual Reports). For publication updates please follow the Court’s Twitter account at twitter.com/ echrpublication. Photographs: Council of Europe Cover: the Human Rights Building (Architects: Richard Rogers Partnership and Atelier Claude Bucher) CONTENTS Foreword 5 I. The Court in 2015 7 II. Composition of the Court 15 III. Composition of the Sections 19 IV. Speech given by Mr Dean Spielmann, President of the European Court of Human Rights, on the occasion of the opening of the judicial year, 30 January 2015 29 V. Speech given by Excmo. Sr. D. Francisco Pérez de los Cobos Orihuel, President of the Spanish Constitutional Court, on the occasion of the opening of the judicial year, 30 January 2015 39 VI. President’s Diary 51 VII. Activities of the Grand Chamber, Sections and single- judge formations 63 VIII. Case-law information, training and outreach 67 IX. Overview of the Court’s case-law in 2015 79 X. Statistical information 187 Events in total (2014-15) 189 Pending cases allocated to a judicial formation at 31 December 2015 (respondent States) 190 Pending cases allocated to a judicial formation at 31 December 2015 (main respondent States) 191 Court’s workload by state of proceedings and application type at 31 December 2015 192 Violations by subject matter in 2015 193 Applications allocated to a judicial formation (2001-15) 194 Judgments (2001-15) 195 Allocated applications by State and by population (2012-15) 196 Violations by Article and by respondent State (2015) 198 Violations by Article and by respondent State (1959-2015) 200 FOREWORD 2015 was a watershed year for the Court. It marked the end of the terms of office of my predecessor, Dean Spielmann, and of Erik Fribergh, the Registrar who headed the Registry of the Court for ten years. The Court also witnessed other significant changes, with the departure of ten judges who have left their mark on the Court. I cannot begin my term of office without paying a warm tribute to them all for their remarkable work. Another landmark event in 2015 was the high-level conference held in Brussels in connection with the Belgian chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. Since the Brighton Conference in 2012, no high-level conference on the future of the Convention system had been organised. The Brussels Conference was especially significant because it was devoted to the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights and because it reminded all concerned that this is a shared responsibility. During the event the States reaffirmed their commitment to the Convention and their attachment to the right of individual application. That is gratifying indeed. The Brussels Declaration, adopted at the close of the conference, stressed the primary responsibility of the Contracting Parties for ensuring the application and effective implementation of the Convention, and emphasised the importance of effective monitoring of the execution of judgments in order to ensure the long-term viability and credibility of the Convention system. I subscribe fully to those undertakings. On the subject of the Court, the Brussels Conference welcomed our efforts with regard to the swift implementation of Protocol No. 14 and the clearing of the backlog of manifestly inadmissible cases. This recognition of our efforts will spur us on to make further progress. In this connection it is essential to point out that 2015 saw the virtual elimination of the single-judge cases. Let us not forget that in 2011 over 100,000 applications had been identified for allocation to a single-judge formation. That figure now stands at 3,200. Reducing that figure was an important goal for the Court and was achieved thanks to the methods deployed by the Filtering Section. Those methods will now be used to deal with repetitive cases, which currently account for almost half of all pending cases (30,500 out of 64,850). This is one of the challenges facing the Court in the years ahead. The same is true of the priority cases, of which there are currently 11,500. Lastly, the Court will also need to tackle the normal, non- repetitive cases, of which there were 19,600 at the end of 2015. Another important development: at the Brussels Conference, the States called on the Court to provide reasons for single-judge decisions. Efforts have thus been under way to make this a reality from 2016 onwards. This will increase the acceptability of the Court’s decisions and fill a gap frequently identified by observers of the Convention system. Lastly, the States stressed European Court of Human Rights – Annual Report 2015 their appreciation of the work carried out by the Court, in particular regarding the dissemination of its judgments and decisions through its information notes, thematic factsheets and practical guides on admissibility and case-law. This recognition of our communication activities is important and I intend to carry on with this policy. One of the highlights of the year for me was the launch of the network for the exchange of information on the case-law of the European Convention on Human Rights. This initiative, which was also welcomed in the Brussels Declaration, is to my mind essential and should enable us to promote the mutual exchange of information between our Court and the highest national courts. Two of the French superior courts, the Conseil d’État and the Court of Cassation, joined the network as early as 5 October, and I trust that 2016 will see other superior courts sign up to this new instrument of cooperation and dialogue. Several of them have already expressed a wish to do so. These projects testify to the fact that the Court is constantly on the move, keen to improve its operation and to forge closer links with other courts. In my capacity as President I will endeavour to carry on the work of my predecessors so as to continue to advance the cause of human rights in Europe. Guido Raimondi President of the European Court of Human Rights 6 I. THE COURT IN 2015 THE COURT IN 2015 The year 2015 was one of change and transition for the European Court of Human Rights. These changes concerned, first of all, the Court’s leadership, with the election by the judges of Guido Raimondi as the thirteenth President of the Court. President Raimondi, who was elected a judge in 2010, served a term as Vice-President of the Court from 2012 before taking up the office of President on 1 November, succeeding President Spielmann. Upon his departure, Mr Spielmann, who held the office of President of the Court for three years and was a judge for more than ten years, was awarded by President François Hollande of France the rank of Commander of the Legion of Honour in recognition of his service to the cause of human rights. Another noted departure in 2015 was that of one of the Court’s Vice-Presidents, Josep Casadevall, who was elected to the original Court in 1996. He was a member of the Court for almost twenty years, and was the first judge elected in respect of Andorra. With his retirement, the final link to the bench of the “old” Court was broken. Two new Vice-Presidents were elected: Işil Karakaş and András Sajó took up their positions for a term of three years commencing on 1 November. Completing the Court’s leadership, three new Section Presidents were elected: Luis López Guerra, Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska and Angelika Nußberger. Under a new temporary provision added to the Rules of Court, their term of office is two years. In all, ten new judges joined the Court during 2015, with another judge-elect waiting to take up office on 1 January 2016. This marks the most significant turnover the institution has seen for many years. There was also change at the head of the Court’s Registry, with the retirement of its Registrar, Erik Fribergh, who had served in that post for ten years and worked with five Court Presidents. The Deputy Registrar, Michael O’Boyle, also retired, having acted in that role since 2006. The Plenary Court elected Roderick Liddell, previously the Director of Common Services, to the post of Registrar, and Françoise Elens-Passos, previously Registrar of the Fourth Section, as Deputy Registrar, both with effect from 1 December. The year was also a significant one as regards the reform of the Convention system. The Belgian chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers organised the fourth high-level reform conference, entitled “Implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights, our shared responsibility”. The conference provided an opportunity for States to take stock of the progress made since the previous conference in Brighton in 2012, to assess the present situation and the challenges facing the Convention system, and to chart the course for the next stage of evaluation and discussions in the reform process. As before, the Court European Court of Human Rights – Annual Report 2015 participated in the preparation of the event, circulating a written contribution among States beforehand dwelling on two main interrelated aspects: prevention of violations of the Convention and the execution of judgments.