Russia Webinar 2: Best practices for promoting the implementation of ECtHR judgments in Russia

This week EIN facilitated its second webinar on improving the impact of the judgments of the ECtHR in Russia. The webinar aimed to provide an overview of what activities might be the most impactful in promoting the implementation of ECHR judgments within the country.

The webinar was divided into two sections. The first used the results of EIN’s survey of participants to set out the variety of activities that Russian NGOs are using to promote ECHR implementation at the domestic level, as well as highlighting which activities are considered to be the most impactful. These activities included engagement with the executive branch, advocacy through the judiciary, media coverage, co-operation with other NGOs, and educational work. Presentations were carried out by two NGOs experienced in working on ECHR implementation, to explain their advocacy campaigns.

The second part of the webinar focused on best practices for promoting the implementation of ECHR judgments experienced by NGOs across Europe. The EIN Guide for Civil Society on Domestic Advocacy for Implementation of ECtHR judgments was used to guide the discussion to provided best practices on activities including advocacy with the executive, forming domestic advocacy coalitions, and communicating about the (non)implementation of judgments.

This webinar provided an exchange of insights and experiences between participants that we hope will help all stakeholders active in Russia to find new partners and allies for advancing the implementation of ECtHR judgments in the country. We thank all participants who joined the webinar and those who shared their insights and experiences.

The last webinar in the series will take place next week, entitled ‘Towards a collective strategy to advance implementation of ECtHR judgments in Russia?’ (Tuesday 24th November 2020). For more information on Domestic Advocacy for Civil Society, please see the EIN Guide for full details.

Want to know if EIN has a member in your state? Or want to join EIN as a member or partner? Check out our webpage to find out more. Also, don’t hesitate to get in touch with EIN if you want us to link you up with a member or partner in your country or with expertise in your area of work. There is a wealth of experience within the network, and we are here to help you learn from each other.

Russia Webinar 1: Non-Implementation of ECtHR Judgments in Russia

Over the last 10 years, 88% of the European Court of Human Rights leading judgments concerning Russia are still pending implementation. More specifically, Russia has the highest number of lending judgments pending implementation with 224 out of a total of 1274 leading cases pending in all Council of Europe countries.

This week EIN facilitated the first of three webinar sessions on improving the impact of the judgments of the ECtHR in Russia. It sessions involve thirteen of Russia’s different human rights organisations. The first session focused on the extent of non-implementation of ECtHR judgments in Russia. The session began with EIN Director George Stafford welcoming participants, followed by roundtable introductions. EIN then presented an overview of the level of non-implementation of ECtHR judgments in Russia. 

The presentation highlighted that around 90% of the leading judgments against Russia handed down by the ECtHR over the last ten years remain pending implementation. Furthermore, 7 years and 6 months is the average time that leading judgments have been pending in Russia and there has been no Action Plan or Action Report in 61.5% of leading cases. Much of these pending leading judgments include recurring human rights issues on Liberty and Security, Torture and Ill-treatment, Fair Trial and Private and Family Life. The session closed with an open discussion among participants allowing time for questions and answers.  

The webinar was EIN’s first step towards generating further conversations and strategies on how to best advance and contribute to implementing ECtHR judgments in Russia. We thank all participants who joined the webinar and look forward to the next one.

The second webinar is scheduled for Tuesday 17th November 2020, titled ‘How NGOs and human rights defenders can work collectively to address the non-implementation problem?’.

EIN Webinar: How can NHRIs take part in the judgments implementation process?

One week after its introductory webinar, EIN organised an online training focused on how NHRIs can take part in the ECHR judgments implementation process.  

There are various ways for NHRIs to take part in the ECHR judgment implementation process. One avenue is to take part in the Strasbourg-based supervisory mechanism, by submitting written communications to the Committee of Ministers (CM). Another crucial element is to put implementation onto the agenda at the national level.

Participants learned more about:

• The basics of the CM execution process and what are the important elements to keep in mind when engaging into it

• What they can do domestically to push for enhanced awareness of the importance of judgments’ implementation.

EIN Director George Stafford

After opening remarks by EIN Director George Stafford, Nikolas Sitaropoulos, Head of Division at the Department of the Execution of Judgments of the Council of Europe presented the CM execution process.

Head of Division Nikolas Sitaropoulos

Tamar Abazadze, Public Defender’s Office, Georgia

An experience sharing session followed. Tamar Abazadze, Head of the Analytical Department within the Public Defender’s Office (PDO) of Georgia, presented how the PDO used the CM process to put pressure on the authorities to make progress on new legislation. Her concrete example referred to the setting up of an independent State’s Inspector Service, which was achieved, among other things, following putting pressure put on the authorities through Rule 9 submissions.

Part 2 of the webinar then focused on how NHRIs could put implementation onto the agenda at the national level. Implementation of judgments indeed happen domestically. NHRIs have, through their mandate and the links they have with domestic actors, the possibility to push domestically for changes (in the legislation, in the practice) which are necessary to ensure that judgments are implemented. Be it through the setting up of relevant platforms with partners and NGOs, by providing training to police officers, for instance, or by communicating about the ECHR judgments and the measures to be taken to implement them. Mikayel Khachatryan, Head of the International Cooperation Department and Gohar Simonyan, Coordinator of the National Preventive Mechanism Implementation, Human Rights Defender’s Office of Armenia, shared their experience in this context. They presented to their colleagues how the Human Rights Defender’s Office of Armenia was using Adjunct Counsels and training seminars to enhance the involvement and capacity of NGOs to take part in the ECHR judgments’ implementation process. You can download their power point presentations here.

You can have access to the full video of the webinar here.

Webinar 3 will take place on 8th October, and will focus on “Towards an effective domestic advocacy strategy for the implementation of ECHR judgments”. This series of webinars is organised in cooperation with ENNHRI and the Council of Europe.