European court of Human Rights 2012/2013

Council of Europe The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) was established by the 1950 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The task of the Council of Europe was : - supervising, together with the European Commission of Human Rights, set up in 1953, - the observance of the rights and freedoms. 

What for?  The impetus from the adoption of the 1950 European Convention came from:  the atrocities committed in Europe before and during the WWII and  the desire to bring the non-Communist countries of Europe together within a common ideological framework, stressing individual civil and political freedoms and rights, as opposed to communist ideas.

ECtHR  ECHR has eventually grown into one of the largest, most accomplished and exemplary international judicial bodies.  Importance:  compliance with the ECtHR's judgments is common, showing a deep influence on the laws and social realities of member States. We can ask: can the courts bring about social change?  The record of the ECHR is impressive in comparison with those of the two other regional human rights courts:  1.the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and  2. the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights.  As a matter of fact, after the ECJ, the ECtHR has decided the largest number of cases (as of January 1, 2000, 837 judgments), developing the most extensive jurisprudence in the field of the protection of human rights.

Growth in 1990‘s  During the 1990s, two factors have further boosted its growth:  1. Firstly, with the end of communism and the enlargement of the Council of Europe to Eastern European States, the ECHR has become, of the regional courts, the one with jurisdiction over the largest number of States (40), encompassing the whole of Europe, including Russia.

Protocol 11  2. Secondly, on May 11, 1994, the Council of Europe's member states concluded an additional protocol to the 1950 European Convention, known as Protocol 11, which fundamentally changed the machinery for the judicial enforcement of the Convention's provisions.  Protocol 11 set up a single permanent Court in place of the existing two-tier system of a Court and a Commission.

Private individuals  According to the existing rules: Private individuals have access to the ECHR without an external filter. Moreover, now individuals can, in limited circumstances, seek a re-hearing in a case decided by a Court's Chamber (7 judges) before the Court's Grand Chamber (17 judges).  This does not happen in the other two regional human rights courts (American and African).

Geographic jurisdiction  The combination of the two factors: entry into force of Protocol 11 and the Court's expanded geographic jurisdiction have made the number of potential claimants soar to more than 800 million. Currently 45 judges cope with one of the busiest international dockets ever.  The ECHR is the largest international bench (also incorporating the largest number of women, both in absolute and proportional terms),  and the only one in which size is not fixed but is a function of the number of States members (one judge per contracting State).

For an application to the ECtHR- the admissibility criteria which have to be complied with:  1. AGAINST THE STATE (which has ratified the ECHR)  2. about THE RIGHTS covered by th Convention  3. VICTIM STATUS: the applicant must have victim status  4. DATE- the application must be about the events occured after the Convention ratification by the state concerned  5. 6 MONTHS: the application must have been lodged within 6 months after the final decision in domestic proceedings in the member state  5. DOMESTIC REMEDIES exhausted  6. the applicant must have suffered SIGNIFICANT DISSADVANTAGE

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ECtHR rulings: the influence in national law and politics  - ECtHR judgements as effective as those of any domestic rules- Art. 46 ECHR states:  ‚obligation of state authorities to undertake general measures- broader measures that extend beyond the specific individual case-  an aim is: to prevent recurrence of similar infringements in the future‘  Considered to be comparable to that of the US supreme Court!

The Fall of the Berlin Wall as the Simbol of the Fall of the Communism (end of Isolism)  re=watch-vrec re=watch-vrec  e=watch-vrec e=watch-vrec  e=relmfu

The end of the Communism- beginning of the democratic era  The revolutions of 1989  pmqRQP0MAxrb7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBvbGgza2Q0BHNlY wNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDVjExNg-- ?p=the+end+of+the+communism+in+eastern+europe& vid=877820ebe7999c7cb808f4551eb77708&l=6%3A01 &turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid% 3DV %26pid%3D15.1&rurl=http%3 A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dhc2XG HA7NK4&tit=The+Revolutions+Of+1989&c=6&sigr=11a 9e478c&fr=yfp-t-701-1&tt=b

 In June 2005, Wilders was one of the leaders in the campaign against the European Constitution, which was rejected by Dutch voters by 62%.  The Party for Freedom combines economic liberalism with a conservative program on immigration and culture. The party seeks tax cuts (€16 billion in the 2006 election program), de-centralization, abolition of the minimum wage, and limiting child benefits and government subsidies.  Regarding immigration and culture, the party believes that the Judeo-Christian and humanist traditions should be taken as the dominant culture in the Netherlands, and that immigrants should adapt accordingly.  The party wants a halt to immigration from non-Western countries. It is sceptical towards the EU, is against future EU enlargement to countries like Turkey and opposes a dominant presence of Islam in the Netherlands. The party is also opposed to dual citizenship.

Website named Reporting point Central and Eastern Europeans  In 2012 the PVV party has launched a website - where people can report complaints about central and eastern European immigrants in the Netherlands.  'Do you have problems with people from central and eastern Europe? Have you lost your job to a Pole, Bulgarian, Romanian or other eastern European? We want to know,' the website states. The website is illustrated by newspaper headlines such as 'Wouldn't it be better if you went back?' and 'Eastern Europeans, increasingly criminal'." The European Commission condemned the website, and EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding stated: "We call on all citizens of the Netherlands not to follow this intolerance. Citizens should instead clearly state on the PVV's website that Europe is a place of freedom.„  The website caused a lot of controversy within the European Union.[

 Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) received some 14,000 complaints on its new hotline against migrant workers from Central and Eastern Europe, reports Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant.  ISLAMOPHOBIA IN THE NETHERLANDS:  There were more than 100 ‘incidents’ at mosques in the Netherlands between 2005 and 2010 – far more than in other countries. The incidents are detailed in a new Dutch book about Islamophobia and discrimination. Those responsible for the trouble mostly go unpunished and Muslims often file no criminal reports.  Geert Wilders' autobiographical book Marked for Death: Islam’s War against the West and Me (1 May 2012)  West/dp/ /ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid= &sr=8-1