New Webpages Showing Countries’ Compliance With the European Court of Human Rights

On Monday 17th February 2020 EIN published webpages to clearly highlight how well (or badly) states are implementing judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. We believe that this information provides a key insight into current issues surrounding the protection of European values, including threats to the rule of law, rising authoritarianism, and attacks on populations’ dignity through government wrongdoing or ineffectiveness.

The main part of the website is an interactive map showing the numbers of leading cases that states have failed to implement. We have published detailed data for each country, which highlights how well or badly they are doing (e.g. Russia has failed to implement 89% of leading judgments from the last ten years) along with summaries of some key cases. You can reach an individual webpage devoted to each country in Europe from the map.

The Court’s judgments cover vital issues, such as the rule of law (e.g. in Hungary), the silencing of journalists through intimidatory lawsuits, violence and imprisonment (e.g. in Ukraine and Turkey), and the persecution of political opponents (e.g. in Azerbaijan). These are countries where the implementation problem is particularly acute. Yet the issue affects almost every country in Europe, in ways that most would not expect.  

We believe that the failure to properly implement judgments of the continent’s human rights court is a key threat to European values, a European institution, and the democratic way of life. Addressing the issue requires strong action from governments, civil society, and international bodies. We have published this resource in order to increase interest and action in relation to this vital issue.

The statistics we provide are open-access and free for re-publication. An explanation of our statistics is provided here.

If you have any questions about the information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Email: contact@einnetwork.org

Read this article in French.