Armenia had 15 new case at ECHR last year, report says

The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, which oversees the implementation of European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judgments, has released the annual report for 2017 on the supervision of the execution of the court’s judgments and decisions.

The Committee of Ministers closed a record number of 3,691 cases last year, leading to a 24% decrease in the total number of outstanding cases.

The report states that new complex problems are also constantly coming before the committee, such as those related to unresolved conflict zones in Europe.

A total of 1,333 new cases came under the supervision of the CoE Committee of Ministers in 2017, with Russia (370), Turkey (138), Romania (110), Ukraine (109) and Greece (103) among the countries with the highest number of new cases. The ECHR cases filed against Armenia rose to 15 from the 10 cases in 2016.

According to the report, Armenia had 2 leading cases (revealing structural or systemic violations) and 13 repetitive cases (related to previously raised issues) at the ECHR last year. 

The countries with highest number closed cases in 2017 were Italy with 2001 cases, Hungary – 296 cases, Russia – 254 cases, Romania – 144 cases and Poland with 133 closed cases. Armenia closed 4 cases last year.

In 2017, the court awarded €14.6m in just satisfaction against Russia, €12.5m against Italy, €11.6m against Turkey, €5.9m against the Slovak Republic and €3.7m against Greece.

The total amount of just satisfaction awarded in 2017 was €106,665 for Armenia, an increase from the €93,585 in 2016.

Main achievements for Armenia:

Actions of security forces: Measures taken to prevent arbitrary detention without reasonable suspicion that the person concerned has committed a crime. Furthermore, compensation for non-pecuniary damages is available in case where abuses have been committed by security forces – amendments and additions to the Civil Code in 2014.

Respect of the final character of judicial decisions: More circumscribed rules on appeals on points of law were introduced by amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure in 2014 in order to avoid several final judgments in the same case.

Fair trial: Improved reasoning of decisions by the Court of Cassation and Constitutional Court.19 In addition, oral hearings in administrative cases were introduced by the new 2013 Code of Administrative Procedure.

Freedom of assembly: The sanction of administrative detention for participation in peaceful assemblies was abolished in 2005 and a more precise legal framework for peaceful assemblies was adopted in 2011, which provides for additional safeguards. Additional guarantees for freedom of assembly in general and for “spontaneous” assemblies, which do not require prior notification, were introduced by amendments of the Constitution in 2015.

Pending cases for Armenia: 

• Ashot Harutyunyan (group), judgment final on 15/09/2010. Inadequate medical care in detention; practice of placing accused in a metal cage during
• Chiragov and Others (group), judgment final on 16/06/2015. Impossibility for displaced persons to gain access, in the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, to their homes and properties in Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding territories – lack of effective remedies)
• Virabyan (group) judgment final on 02/01/2013. Ill-treatment and torture in police custody and ineffective investigations
• Muradyan, judgment final on 24/02/2017. Absence of an effective investigation into the death of an Armenian military conscript based in Nagorno-Karabakh.