Supervision of the Execution of Judgments and Decisions Of
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SUPERVISION OF THE EXECUTION OF JUDGMENTS AND DECISIONS DECISIONS AND JUDGMENTS OF EXECUTION THE OF SUPERVISION SUPERVISION OF THE EXECUTION OF JUDGMENTS AND DECISIONS OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS HUMAN OF COURT EUROPEAN THE OF – 2015 9th Annual Report COUNCIL OF EUROPE 2015 of the Committee of Ministers COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS SUPERVISION OF THE EXECUTION OF JUDGMENTS AND DECISIONS OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS 9th Annual Report of the Committee of Ministers 2015 French edition: Surveillance de l’exécution des arrêts et décisions de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme. 9e rapport annuel du Comité des Ministres – 2015 All requests concerning the reproduction or translation of all or part of this document should be addressed to the Directorate of Communication (F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex or [email protected]). All other correspondence concerning this document should be addressed to the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law Cover design and layout: Documents and Publications Production Department(SPDP), Council of Europe © Council of Europe, March 2016 Printed at the Council of Europe Contents I. INTRODUCTION BY THE CHAIRS OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS MEETINGS 7 II. REMARKS BY THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND RULE OF LAW 9 Introduction 9 Positive developments confirmed 9 Two major challenges 10 Further strengthening the dynamics 10 III. IMPROVING THE EXECUTION PROCESS: A PERMANENT REFORM WORK 13 A. Guaranteeing long-term effectiveness: main trends 13 B. The Interlaken - Izmir - Brighton – Brussels process 15 C. Development of cooperation activities 19 i. The targeted cooperation activities of the Department for the execution of judgments of the Court 19 ii. More general cooperation programmes 20 iii. Additional support for cooperation programs 20 IV. MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS 21 Introduction 21 APPENDIX 1 – STATISTICS 2015 53 Introduction 53 Basic notions 54 A. Overview of developments in the number of cases from 1996 to 2015 55 A.1. Developments in the number of new cases 55 A.2. Developments in the number of pending cases at the end of the year 56 A.3. Developments in the number of closed cases 57 B. Main statistics relating to the Committee of Ministers’ action 58 B.1. Overview of the number of cases according to their classification : enhanced and standard 58 B.2. Overview of the number of cases according to their nature: leading and repetitive 61 B.3. Detailed statistics by State 62 C. Statistics relating to the Committee of Ministers’ new working methods 71 C.1. Main themes under enhanced supervision (based on the number of leading cases) 71 C.2. Main States with cases under enhanced supervision (based on the number of leading cases) 72 C.3. Transfers from one supervision procedure to another 72 C.4. Action plans / Action reports 72 C.5. Number of cases/groups of cases with a Committee of Ministers decision 73 C.6. Contributions from civil society 74 D. Length of execution of the Court’s judgments 74 D.1. Leading cases pending 74 D.2. Leading cases closed 77 D.3. Respect of payment deadlines 80 Page 3 E. Additional statistics 83 E.1. Just satisfaction 83 E.2. Friendly settlements 84 E.3. Cases whose merits are already covered by well-established case-law of the Court (hereafter “WECL” cases - Article 28§1b) and Friendly Settlements (Article 39§4) 85 APPENDIX 2 – MAIN CASES OR GROUPS OF CASES PENDING 87 APPENDIX 3 - MAIN CASES CLOSED BY FINAL RESOLUTION DURING THE YEAR 105 APPENDIX 4 – NEW JUDGMENTS WITH INDICATIONS OF RELEVANCE FOR THE EXECUTION 111 A. Pilot judgments final in 2015 112 B. Judgments with indications of relevance for the execution (under Article 46) final in 2015 116 APPENDIX 5 – THEMATIC OVERVIEW OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS OCCURRED IN THE SUPERVISION PROCESS IN 2015 121 A. Right to life and protection against torture and ill-treatment 121 A.1. Actions of security forces 121 A.2. Positive obligation to protect the right to life 135 A.3. Ill-treatment – specific situations 135 B. Prohibition of slavery and forced labour 136 C. Protection of rights in detention 136 C.1. Poor detention conditions 136 C.2. Unjustified detention and related issues 148 C.3. Detention and other rights 153 D. Issues related to expulsion / extradition 155 D.1. Expulsion or refusal of residence permit 155 D.2. Detention in view of expulsion / extradition 162 E. Access to an efficient functioning of justice 165 E.1. Excessive length of judicial proceedings 165 E.2. Lack of access to a court 175 E.3. No or delayed enforcement of domestic judicial decisions 176 E.4. Non-respect of the final character of court judgments 182 E.5. Unfair judicial proceedings – civil rights 182 E.6. Unfair judicial proceedings – criminal charges 185 E.7. Limitation on use of restrictions on rights 186 E.8. Organisation of the judiciary 189 F. No punishment without law 190 G. Protection of private and family life 191 G.1. Home, correspondence and secret surveillance 191 G.2. Domestic violence 192 G.3. Abortion and procreation 193 G.4. Use, disclosure or retention of information in violation of privacy 194 G.5. Placement of children in public care, custody and access rights 197 G.6. Gender identity 198 H. Protection of the environment 198 I. Freedom of religion 199 J. Freedom of expression and information 199 K. Freedom of assembly and association 202 L. Right to marry 206 9th Annual Report of the Committee of Ministers 2015 Page 4 M. Effective remedies – specific issues 206 N. Protection of property 206 N.1. Expropriations, nationalisations 206 N.2. Disproportionate restrictions to property rights 208 O. Right to education 213 P. Electoral rights 214 Q. Freedom of movement 217 R. Discrimination 217 S. Cooperation with the European Court and respect of right to individual petition 222 T. Inter-State and related case(s) 225 APPENDIX 6 – BRUSSELS DECLARATION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS 229 High-level Conference on the “Implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights, our shared responsibility” 229 APPENDIX 7 – ACTIONS AND DEVELOPMENTS RELEVANT FOR EXECUTION 239 A. Conclusions of seminars, workshops, round tables... 239 Round Table on “Reopening of proceedings following a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights” 239 Steering Committee for Human Rights’ report on the longer-term future of the system of the European Convention on Human Rights 241 B. Special actions of member States to improve the implementation of the Convention 243 Armenia: Launching of the Official Website of the Armenian Government Agent Office 243 Georgia: Seminar on “Reopening of cases on the basis of judgment/decision of the European Court of Human Rights” 243 Greece: A comprehensive national strategy to “tackle racism and intolerance” 244 APPENDIX 8 – THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS’ SUPERVISION OF THE EXECUTION OF JUDGMENTS AND DECISIONS – SCOPE AND PROCEDURE 245 Introduction 245 A. Scope of the supervision 246 B. New supervision modalities: a twin-track approach to improve prioritization and transparency 248 Generalities 248 Identification of priorities: twin track supervision 249 Continuous supervision based on action plans/reports 249 Transparency 250 Practical modalities 250 Simplified procedure for the supervision of payment of just satisfaction 251 Necessary measures adopted: end of supervision 251 C. Increased interaction between the Court and the Committee of Ministers 252 D. Friendly settlements 253 APPENDIX 9 – RULES OF THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS FOR THE SUPERVISION OF THE EXECUTION OF JUDGMENTS AND OF THE TERMS OF THE FRIENDLY SETTLEMENTS 255 I. General provisions 255 II. Supervision of the execution of judgments 256 III. Supervision of the execution of the terms of friendly settlements 259 IV. Resolutions 260 APPENDIX 10 – WHERE TO FIND FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE EXECUTION OF “THE COURT’S JUDGMENTS” 263 Contents Page 5 APPENDIX 11 – “HUMAN RIGHTS” MEETINGS AND ABBREVIATIONS 265 A. CMDH meetings in 2014 and 2015 265 B. General abbreviations 266 C. Country codes 267 INDEX OF CASES 269 9th Annual Report of the Committee of Ministers 2015 Page 6 I. Introduction by the Chairs of the Human Rights meetings 2015 has seen a confirmation of recent positive trends. The results suggest a durable upturn in the wake of the Interlaken process and the introduction of new working methods for the Committee of Ministers in 2011. It is clear, however, that the continuation of these positive results rests on contin- ued resolute action by the respondent States. The impetus for such action must be maintained and we thus strongly encourage all concerned to reinforce their efforts. The central elements of effective execution are political will and efficient cooperation between all the different actors concerned both at national and European levels. This shared responsibility was at the heart of the High Level Conference organised in Brussels by the Belgian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers between 26 and 27 March 2015. Entitled “The implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights: Our shared responsibility”, its conclusions were endorsed by the Committee of Ministers at its May 2015 session. The Conference came at a good time in view of the on-going reflections on the long term future of the Convention system, the many urgent challenges which confront human rights protection in Europe and the execution of the European Court of Human Rights’ judgments. It is in this context a source of great satisfaction that all the member States reaffirmed their deep and binding commitment to the Convention system and acknowledged its extraordinary contribution to the protection of human rights in Europe and its central role in maintaining democratic stability across the continent.