Taking Cases to the European Court of Human Rights: A Manual

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was the first Convention adopted by the Council of Europe in 1950 and is integrally linked with the founding principles of the organisation. These principles, which are implicitly stated in the Council of Europe Statute are the promotion of pluralist democracy, the respect of the rule of law and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Convention created a right of individual petition - the right of individuals and organisations to challenge their Government through the Strasbourg process, by taking their case to the European Commission of Human Rights, and then to the European Court of Human Rights. The Court’s judgments are binding on the State parties to the Convention.

An indication of the growing importance of the Convention system within Europe can be given by providing the amount of applications to the Court: In the first 30 years of the Convention, less than 10,000 complaints were filed with the Commission. Since then, the number of applicants has grown rapidly – in 1995, 10,201 communications were received and in 1996 12,143, of which 2,236 concerned countries of Central and Eastern Europe. For 1996, the number of applications registered was 4,758 of which 852 were brought against countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In 1999, there were more than 47,000 provisional files pending at the Court. By September 2001, there were 18,000 pending registered cases.

These figures do not necessarily illustrate that human rights abuses are multiplying, but rather they show that awareness of the Convention is improving and with the assistance of non-governmental (NGO) human rights groups, individuals are more readily able to pursue their cases to Strasbourg.

This manual provides commentaries on the practice and procedure of the European Court, as well as including key texts such as the Convention itself, the Court’s application form and a table of legal aid rates. It has been produced in order to complement the on-going training seminars being held in Armenia and Azerbaijan, Turkey and other parts of Europe, which have been designed to provide very practical advice about taking cases to the European Court of Human Rights. This manual was prepared by KHRP Executive Director Kerim Yildiz and Solicitor/Lecturer of Law Philip Leach and is published jointly with KHRP and BHRC.