The ICJ, together with Amnesty International, has responded to a Council of Europe consultation on the long-term future of the European Convention on Human Rights and European Court of Human Rights system.
In their response, the ICJ and Amnesty International stress that the guiding principles in any new reforms of the Convention system must be that they serve to enhance the protection of human rights, and in particular to ensure better implementation of the Convention at national level; that they enhance access of individuals to justice for violations of the full range of Convention rights; that that they ensure more effective reparation for violation of the rights guaranteed under the Convention. The success of the Convention system in the long-term requires:
- respect by all Member States for the Convention institutions, and acknowledgment of the shared responsibility for the protection of Convention rights;
- enhanced national implementation of the Convention, including by states bringing their law and policy into line with judgments of the Court regarding other Member States;
- adequate powers and jurisdiction of the Court to ensure consistency in standards, and to ensure effective protection to individuals, preserving the system of individual petition in its current form;
- measures to address systemic human rights problems leading to numerous similar applications to the Court;
- further reforms to execution of judgments and supervision of execution procedures, in particular for systemic violations, making Article 46(4) operational and giving further consideration to financial penalties.
Europe-long-term future of EU Convention-advocay-position paper-2014 (full text in pdf)