Eerste jaarverslag kwaliteitstoezicht uitspraken Europees Hof voor Rechten van de Mens (en)

Press release - 211(2008)

First annual report on the execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights

Strasbourg, 26.03.2008 - The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe yesterday evening presented its first annual report on its supervision of the execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights at a ceremony in the Palais de l'Europe in Strasbourg.

Ambassador Emil Kuchar, Permanent Representative of Slovakia - the country which chairs the 47 member Organisation - and Ambassador Per Sjögren, Permanent Representative of Sweden - who chaired the last two Committee of Ministers meetings devoted to the execution of judgments, officially handed over the report to the President of the European Court of Human Rights, Jean-Paul Costa, the Secretary General, Terry Davis, the Human Rights Commissioner and the Parliamentary Assembly.

They both underlined that the quality of the execution of judgments is crucial. "Control of the execution of judgments is an essential element of the credibility of the system and the efficiency of the actions of the Court. It fosters the trust which must exist between the authorities in the various member states if there is to be democratic stability and efficient cooperation in Europe", said Emil Kuchar. "In order to achieve good execution all actors must participate - government agents, national authorities and officials", Per Sjögren added.

"This report comes at such a time so that everybody knows how important the Committee of Ministers' action is in this field", said Jean-Paul Costa, while publicly thanking it for the work carried out in recent years to improve and promote the human rights protection at the internal level.

Terry Davis said that "the judgments of the Court are very important. Their execution though is equally important. That is what makes a real difference for the people concerned."

The Parliamentary Assembly was represented by its Secretary General, Mateo Sorinas, who said that, for the national parliaments and for the Assembly, this report would be a valuable tool with which to continue working, together with the Committee of Ministers, the Court and the Human Rights Commissioner, for the effective protection of the rights of European citizens.

The Human Rights Commissioner - Thomas Hammarberg - was represented by his Director, Marc Scheuer. He emphasised the importance of this report for the Commissioner's work and for that of two of his leading partners; the human rights defenders and the national institutions for the protection of human rights. He will do his utmost to ensure that the report is brought to their attention.

The 274 page report notably an overview of the issues and statistical information in the execution of the main cases before the Committee of Ministers in 2007. It contains a thematic overview of issues examined in 2007 (Appendix 1) and a statistical analysis (Appendix 2). It lists the final Resolutions (Appendix 3), the interim Resolutions (Appendix 4) as well as Memoranda and other relevant public documents (Appendix 5). information on the development of execution supervision.

1st annual report 2007

Council of Europe Press Division

Tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 25 60

Fax:+33 (0)3 88 41 39 11

pressunit@coe.int

www.coe.int/press