Future of ECHR To Be Settled at Upcoming Brighton Conference

Human Rights Priority Responds to Amnesty International’s Appeal about the Reform of European Court

Currently, active negotiations are held in Strasburg over the working version of the Brighton Declaration which will determine the future of the European Court of Human Rights. At stake is the reform of the European Court in order to speed up the decision making process on concrete cases and properly execute judgments. The declaration will be passed at a conference scheduled for April 18-20.

To make the system of defending human rights more effective, proper execution of court judgments and effective introduction of the Convention on the local and national level is of utmost importance. A set of proposals on this issue must be considered and included during the Brighton Negotiations.

However, some proposals will seriously limit the power of the Court and its ability to ensure the effective defense of human rights.

They are:

• introducing the requirement of additional permissiveness in cases where national courts have protect the rights ensured by the Human Rights Convention. This criterion of additional permissiveness restricts the jurisdiction of the Court;
• codification of principles of certain legal interpretations like principles of  subsidiarity and margin of appreciation. These amendments can seriously undermine the effectiveness of the European Court of Human Rights in protecting the Convention rights. The Court developed the doctrine of margin of appreciation together with other significant principles of interpretation and their existence is necessary to allow the Court to adapt to diverse circumstances and social changes.

Nongovernmental organization Human Rights Priority together with other international nongovernmental organizations joins the appeal of Amnesty International and calls upon  civil society, NGOs and other stakeholders to protect the authority and unity of the European Court and urge them to join the Protest Appeal in order to keep the Court open for any person whose rights have been violated. The Protest Appeal will be forwarded to government officials, including the Government of Georgia, in order to prevent the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from making a decision that would render the Court ineffective and introduce additional barriers at the European Court for victims of rights abuses. 

Please see additional information on the Facebook page of Human Rights Priority
https://www.facebook.com/HumanRightsPriority

P.S. Human Rights Center has joined the Appeal of Human Rights Priority and supports the proposals listed above.