Full transcript
0:20[Music]
0:24fore
0:43[Music]
0:46each year tens of thousands of people
0:49who consider that their fundamental
0:51rights have been breached turn to the
0:54European Court of Human
0:56Rights what is this court which for over
1:00half a century has allowed individuals
1:02to have States held to account and whose
1:05decisions May ultimately affect our
1:07everyday
1:08lives it was in
1:101949 in the aftermath of the second
1:12world war that a number of countries
1:14joined forces to set up the Council of
1:17Europe in order to promote human rights
1:19democracy and the rule of law across
1:22[Music]
1:24Europe they adopted the European
1:26convention on human rights setting up a
1:29system that was unique at that time
1:31including a binding supervisory
1:34mechanism that was how the court came
1:36into being in
1:371959 reflecting the member states desire
1:40never again to experience the atrocities
1:43committed in the mid 20th
1:45Century 12 states signed up initially
1:49now there are almost 50 of
1:52them the court is based in Strasburg in
1:55the human rights building it is composed
1:58of one judge for each member state of
2:00the Council of Europe the judges who are
2:02elected by the Parliamentary assembly of
2:04the Council of Europe are fully
2:06independent and do not represent any
2:09national interests in dealing with cases
2:12the judges are assisted by the registry
2:14which employs qualified staff from all
2:16the member
2:18states the court receives hundreds of
2:21letters and phone calls every day when
2:24applications arrive at the court they
2:26are sorted and then dispatched to one of
2:29the units of the registry which prepare
2:31the files for the
2:33judges all the decisions are taken by
2:36the judges sitting as a single judge
2:39formation a three judge committee a
2:42seven judge chamber or a grand chamber
2:45of 17 judges for the most important
2:48cases the procedure is conducted in
2:50writing but in a very few cases the
2:53court also holds public hearings all of
2:56which are filmed and can be viewed via
2:58webcast
3:00the court receives a huge number of
3:03applications every year however the vast
3:05majority of them are rejected at the
3:07admissibility stage because the criteria
3:10for applying to the court have not been
3:12met for example because the applicants
3:14have not first raised their case before
3:16the national
3:18Courts for that reason the court
3:21delivers judgment on the merits in only
3:23a small proportion of the cases brought
3:25before
3:27it it then rules on whether or not there
3:30has been a violation of the convention
3:32and it may award financial
3:38compensation since it was first set up
3:41the court has completed the examination
3:43of hundreds of thousands of
3:45cases this is hardly surprising given
3:48that the number of individuals covered
3:50by the system totals around 820 million
3:53people that is the number of potential
3:56applicants living in the countries which
3:58have undertaken to complete
4:00with the
4:02convention in reality however there are
4:05even more potential applicants non
4:07Europeans whether they are refugees or
4:10other individuals who happen to be
4:12within the jurisdiction of a member
4:13state are also
4:17protected for instance the court found a
4:20violation of the convention by Italy
4:22following the forced return of Somalians
4:24and eritreans to Libya from where they
4:27had originally set out by boat for
4:29Europe the Court held that they would be
4:31at risk of ill treatment if they were
4:34repatriated in exceptional cases the
4:37scope of the convention can also extend
4:40beyond Europe's
4:43borders the court found the United
4:45Kingdom to be in breach of the
4:47convention following the deaths of
4:49civilians in Iraq during security
4:51operations carried out by British forces
4:54the Court held that as an occupying
4:56power responsible for maintaining
4:58Security in the region concerned the
5:01United Kingdom should have conducted an
5:02investigation into civilian deaths in
5:05which British soldiers were
5:08involved a state can thus be held
5:10responsible for events occurring outside
5:13its
5:14territory but states can also be held
5:16accountable for acts committed within
5:18their jurisdiction by another state if
5:21they were aware of
5:23them this was the case with the Former
5:26Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia which was
5:29found to be in breach of the convention
5:31because a person suspected of terrorism
5:33was tortured while on that State's
5:35territory the torture had been committed
5:38by CIA agents but in the presence of
5:41officials of the state
5:43concerned numerous rights are protected
5:46under the convention the most
5:48fundamental is the right to life and the
5:51death penalty is no longer applied in
5:53any member state of the Council of
5:57Europe some cases concern the treatment
6:00to which the population is subjected in
6:02Conflict
6:04zones other cases relate to the state's
6:07failure to protect
6:09individuals the court found a violation
6:11by turkey for an infringement of the
6:14right to life and discrimination against
6:16women the case concerned physical
6:19assaults carried out repeatedly by a man
6:21on his wife and his mother-in-law the
6:24husband later killed his
6:28mother-in-law the court has also had to
6:30rule on the sensitive issue of the end
6:32of life in a case against France it held
6:36that there would not be a violation of
6:38the convention in the event of
6:40implementation of a decision by the
6:41French courts to authorize the
6:43withdrawal of artificial nutrition and
6:46hydration from a person in a vegetative
6:52state another fundamental right is the
6:54prohibition of torture and inhuman or
6:56degrading treatment
7:01Greece was found to be responsible for
7:03the torture of an unlawful migrant from
7:05Turkey whose boat was stopped by Greek
7:07Coast Guard officials while he was
7:09attempting to reach Italy the man had
7:12then been beaten and sexually assaulted
7:14by one of the
7:17officials in numerous other cases
7:20brought against various countries the
7:22court has identified problems with
7:24overcrowding in prisons and in human and
7:26degrading conditions of detention
7:30but most of the cases coming before the
7:32court concern the right to a fair
7:34hearing and especially the length of
7:37domestic proceedings the court has
7:39received thousands of applications from
7:41individuals who in some cases have
7:43waited more than 20 years for a final
7:46judgment in their own
7:48country there are also very many cases
7:51concerning the failure to execute final
7:53judicial
7:56decisions for example Anatoli bof who
8:00worked on the Chernobyl site following
8:01the nuclear disaster had to wait several
8:04years before the Russian authorities
8:06paid him the compensation awarded by the
8:08domestic Courts for his health
8:10problems the court in Strasburg held
8:13that a state could not site budget
8:14shortages as a reason for not executing
8:17a Judicial
8:20decision the rights and freedoms
8:22contained in the convention are set out
8:24in general terms and the court has to
8:26interpret them in the context of today's
8:28society
8:30in order to avoid the convention
8:31becoming a document that is out of touch
8:33with contemporary
8:34[Music]
8:36issues for instance the court has
8:39delivered judgments in several cases
8:41concerning discrimination against
8:43homosexuals whether in the context of
8:45the criminalization of homosexuality the
8:47ban on homosexuals in the armed forces
8:50or the organization of Gay Pride marches
8:52and with regard to civil
8:56Partnerships it has also had to rule on
8:58Environmental mental
9:00issues in a case which led to a finding
9:03against Italy and subsequently to the
9:05closure of a hazardous industrial plant
9:08the court found that the authorities had
9:10not informed people living near the
9:12plant about the risks and the procedure
9:14to follow in the event of an accident
9:17even though there had already been one
9:18explosion and numerous cases of
9:23poisoning the court has also ruled on
9:26issues that were unimaginable when the
9:28convention was adopted
9:29for example in cases concerning new
9:34technology in one case it found that
9:37turkey had breached the convention by
9:39blocking access to the entire Google
9:42sites internet hosting service the Court
9:45held that restricting access to the
9:47internet in this way was a breach of
9:49freedom of
9:51expression some of the cases dealt with
9:53by the court relate to politically
9:55sensitive
9:57issues one such a example was the case
10:00brought by Julia timoshenko the former
10:03prime minister of Ukraine and leader of
10:05one of the country's main opposition
10:08parties she was charged with abuse of
10:10power following the change of government
10:12and was placed in pre-trial detention
10:15the court found that Miss timoshenko's
10:17detention had been arbitrary and
10:19unlawful that it had not been the
10:21subject of a proper review and that it
10:24had been motivated by reasons other than
10:26the suspicions against her
10:29some cases provoke a strong reaction
10:31from members of the
10:33public the rights set forth in the
10:35convention apply to everyone including
10:38individuals who have committed very
10:40serious
10:41offenses many people find this difficult
10:44to
10:46understand in a case against Germany
10:49which resulted in a finding of a
10:51violation the Court ruled that it is not
10:53permissible to threaten someone with
10:55torture even if another person's life is
10:58at stake
11:00German police officers had threatened to
11:02torture an individual who had abducted
11:04and murdered an 11-year-old boy in order
11:07to force him to reveal the location of
11:08the victim whom they belied to be still
11:13alive these are just a few examples of
11:16cases the court has found many thousands
11:19of
11:21violations the court may find that a
11:23state has indeed breached the convention
11:26but in Practical terms what is the
11:28impact of a judge J M finding a
11:30violation the repercussions are very
11:32far-reaching as states are bound to
11:35comply with and execute the judgments
11:37that concern
11:40them ensuring that the Court's judgments
11:42are respected and that the necessary
11:45remedial action is taken to prevent
11:47similar violations of the convention in
11:48future is the task of the Council of
11:51Europe's executive arm the committee of
11:54ministers this committee is made up of
11:56the Foreign Affairs Ministers of the
11:58council's member state
11:59or their permanent
12:01Representatives the committee of
12:03ministers meets regularly to verify the
12:05execution of Court judgments and cases
12:08remain on its books until it is
12:10satisfied with the measures taken by the
12:12state
12:13[Music]
12:15concerned the judgments delivered in
12:17Strasburg have led to numerous changes
12:19in National legislation affecting the
12:21lives of
12:24everyone they have also opened the way
12:27for retrials of individuals convict Ed
12:29following an unfair trial for the
12:31restitution of expropriated properties
12:33to their owners or the payment of
12:36compensation for the closure of
12:38factories causing pollution and for the
12:41release of individuals who have been
12:42detained
12:44unlawfully in recent years several high
12:47level conferences on the future of the
12:49Court have emphasized the importance of
12:51the principle of
12:53subsidiarity under this principle cases
12:56should only reach the court when the
12:58fundamental rights of the individuals
13:00concerned have not been recognized
13:02directly at National
13:06level however the court still receives a
13:09great many similar repetitive
13:11applications because states have not
13:13applied the convention or have not
13:15enacted legislation to implement and
13:17Safeguard the rights it
13:20protects a number of reforms have been
13:22implemented to enhance the Court's
13:26Effectiveness ultimately however it is
13:28at National level that the convention
13:30has to be
13:36applied governments must take action to
13:39ensure that the convention is respected
13:41in their
13:46country in the meantime the court
13:49continues to serve as the Bastion of
13:51human rights in Europe a last resort for
13:54millions of people as it has been for
13:57over half a century
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