Human Rights Centre Ghent training and brainstorming seminar: "Strengthening the Implementation Of Strasbourg Court Judgments Through Rule 9 Submissions: What Role For The HRC And HRRN?"

Last week, EIN participated in a training and brainstorming seminar organized by the University of Ghent’s Human Rights Centre entitled “Strengthening the Implementation Of Strasbourg Court Judgments Through Rule 9 Submissions: What Role For The HRC And HRRN?“. This training was developed for members of the Human Rights Centre and University's Human Rights Researcher’s Network, aiming to provide them with the knowledge and skills to engage in the ECtHR implementation process.

The training seminar was divided into three sessions. The first session focused on the implementation of ECtHR judgments, providing participants with a basic understanding of the Committee of Ministers judgment implementation process. The session began with Anne-Katrin Speck, PhD researcher within the Human Rights Centre at Ghent University and former Co-Director of EIN, who discussed why advocacy for the implementation of judgments is important and set out the basics of the ECtHR judgment implementation process.

The second session focused on drafting rule 9 submissions to the Committee of Ministers. The discussion began with Anne-Katrin Speck explaining the Do’s and Don’ts of drafting these submissions, followed by a presentation on the experience of intervening in Demirtaş and Kavala cases against Turkey from Beril Onder, Project Lawyer within the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project. Participants were then able to apply their knowledge of the previous series by conducting a case exercise. Participants were split into break-out groups to brainstorm how they would tackle the following cases: Paposhvili v. Belgium, regarding the lack of examination of the medical situation of a person suffering from serious illnesses who faced deportation to Georgia, and the impact of his removal on his family life; Lachiri v. Belgium, regarding the unjustified restriction on the freedom to manifest one's religion following exclusion from the courtroom of a court for refusing to remove one's hijab; and Zhdanov and others v. Russia, concerning the refusal to register LGBT associations.

The final session of the training focused on the future role HRC and HRRN in drafting Rule 9 Submissions. Two presentations were given on the topic by our very own Ioana Iliescu, Law and Advocacy Officer, and Agnès Ciccarone, Programme and Finance Manager, setting out tips on making submissions and on which cases are deserving of civil society engagement. A final exercise followed these presentations: a brainstorming activity which allowed members of the HRC and the HRRN to actively plan their involvement in the implementation process.

The seminar closed with Eva Brems, HRC Director, setting out next steps to be taken by the Human Rights Centre Ghent and the Human Rights Research Network in their plan to engage with the ECtHR implementation process.

We’d like to thank Eva Brems for chairing the seminar, UGent for inviting us to the seminar, and of course, a big thank you to everyone who was able to join this training. We hope to read your Rule 9 submissions in the future!