Europe

Home page

Europe

Protocol envisaging reforms at European Court on Human Rights declared open for signing

24 June 2013 17:01 (UTC +04:00)

According to the case-law of the Court, states have a margin of appreciation in the way they apply the Convention, depending on the circumstances of the case and the rights at issue. This reflects the fact that the Convention system is subsidiary to the safeguarding of human rights at national level. Accordingly, Protocol No. 15 introduces into the preamble of the Convention an explicit reference to the principle of subsidiary and the doctrine of the margin of appreciation. It also introduces other changes, including reducing from six to four months the time-limit within which an application may be made to the Court following the date of a final domestic decision.

This Treaty is the outcome of the work carried out as part of the reform of the Court. At the Interlaken (2010) and Izmir (2011) Conferences, the member states unanimously agreed that it was essential to reform the Convention supervisory mechanism in order to ensure its long-term effectiveness and to this end adopted action and follow-up plans. The Declaration adopted at the Brighton Conference (2012) contained a number of specific proposals to ensure the success of this reform, to which Protocol No. 15 is a direct response.

19 countries have already signed the document, but Azerbaijan has not signed it yet.

Protocol No. 15 will enter into force once it has been ratified by all member states.