Izmir Declaration on the Future of the European Court of Human Rights
Following the last Ministerial conference held in Interlaken (Switzerland) in February 2010, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe convened in Izmir (Turkey) to continue their reflections on the effectiveness of the Convention mechanism. Under the Turkish chairmanship of the Council of Europe, the Ministers adopted the Izmir Declaration on the Future of the European Court of Human Rights.
Taking into account the recent developments since Interlaken, the Committee of Ministers reiterated their commitment to ensuring State Parties’ continued commitment to the right of individual petition in that dissuading clearly inadmissible applications should not prevent well-founded applications from being examined by the Court.
In order to ensure the implementation of the Convention at the national level, the Committee of Ministers invited Member States to:
• Ensure effective domestic remedies for providing a decision on an alleged violation of the Convention and, if necessary, its redress;
• Cooperate with the Committee of Ministers within the framework provided by the new methods of supervising the execution of the Court’s judgments;
• Consider contributing to the Human Rights Trust Fund.
The Izmir Declaration also called on the Ministers to continue to consider the following:
• In respect to additional measures in regard to access to the Court, that the Committee of Ministers ‘continue to examine the issue of charging fees to applicants and other possible new procedural rules or practices concerning access to the Court’;
• In respect to a simplified procedure for amendment of the Convention, that the Committee of Ministers ‘continues to pursue preparatory work for elaboration of a simplified procedure for amending provisions relating to organisational matters, including reflection on the means of its introduction, i.e. a Statute for the Court or a new provision in the Convention’;
• In respect to the need for adequate national measures to contribute to reducing the number of applications, that the Committee of Ministers’ ‘continues to reflect on the advisability of introducing a procedure allowing the highest national courts to request advisory opinions from the Strasbourg Court concerning the interpretation and application of the Convention that would help clarify the provisions of the Convention and the Court’s case-law, thus providing further guidance in order to assist States Parties in avoiding future violations’;
• In respect to the accession of the European Union to the Convention, that the negotiating parties transmit to the Committee of Ministers a draft agreement on accession and the proposals on necessary amendments to the Convention.
Kundai Sithole, University of Reading (UK) for IDW
Reference links:
1. Izmir declaration
http://www.coe.int/t/dc/press/source/20110428_Declaration_Izmir_en.doc
2. Izmir conference website
http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/standardsetting/conferenceizmir/default_EN.asp?