The autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) took place last week (18 September – Friday 2 October). Some of the matters that were discussed during this session concern the ECHR. We will highlight four of these:
1. Speech by Mattias Guyomar (ECtHR President)
In his address to the PACE, the ECtHR President addressed the importance of having a dialogue with both the PACE and national parliaments. Additionally, he spoke about the election of the Court’s judges and the delays in the submission of lists of candidates by the states, as a consequence of which four judges remain in office despite the expiry of their term. Interestingly, the President also addressed the Chișinău Declaration, highlighting the importance of judicial independence and stressing that the document ‘is not a roadmap for the Court’s judicial activity’. Comparably, he explained that ‘the Court hears [the states’] concerns – but must never be told what to do’.
When discussing Russia, Guyomar noted that the decision Lebedeva and Others v Russia, ‘has raised some concerns’, adding that he ‘will be glad to answer any questions’ the PACE members may have. When answering their questions, he emphasised that the Court will not reverse the decision, that a chamber ‘took this sovereign decision’ and that ‘administering justice is not merely a matter of granting relief to the applicants’. He also explained that the Court has created a form for applicants whose applications were stuck out by the Lebedeva decision, so they can request restoral of their application under Article 37(2) ECHR.
One of the other topics that the President also touched upon in his speech is the Court’s budget, noting that ‘we need your political support, which should also translate into financial support coming from your governments’. Guyomar added that the Court needs ‘a sustainable and sufficient ordinary budget’; it should not be ‘excessively dependent on voluntary contributions, which by the way are decreasing’.
2. Ensuring the implementation of judgments concerning Russia, including the payment of compensation awarded
The PACE adopted a resolution and recommendation on the implementation of judgments concerning Russia, based on a report by PACE member Tony Vaughan. In the recommendation, the PACE stresses that ‘the Council of Europe should take any pragmatic and achievable steps available in order to secure, initially, at least partial implementation of the judgments concerned’. Such steps should also ensure that Russia pays the over €3.3 billion in unpaid just satisfaction. In order to achieve implementation, the PACE proposes, among other solutions, that the (observer) states:
adopt without delay the necessary legal and/or practical measures to repurpose assets of the Russian State that are within their jurisdiction so that, when the European Court of Human Rights delivers judgment(s) awarding just satisfaction in inter-State cases brought by Ukraine against the Russian Federation relating to the war of aggression, those assets may be transferred to a funding mechanism enabling the payment of the just satisfaction awarded.
3. Election of Svjetlana Milišić-Veličkovski as judge in respect of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the four states in respect of which a judge has remained in office despite the expiry of their term, as noted by the Court’s President in his speech. The term of the current Judge, Faris Vehabović, started in December 2012, meaning he has stayed almost five years longer than the nine-year term (Article 23(1) ECHR). He will now be replaced by a new Judge: Svjetlana Milišić-Veličkovski, who is currently a Judge at the Supreme Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
