CYIL vol. 15 (2024)

CYIL 15 ȍ2024Ȏ CZECH REPUBLIC BEFORE THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN 2023 CZECH REPUBLIC BEFORE THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN 2023 Petr Konůpka Abstract: T he aim of this Article is to provide an overview of the activities of the European Court of Human Rights towards the Czech Republic in 2023. After a long period of fasting, the Strasbourg Court issued more than thirty decisions. Among them are two judgments of the Grand Chamber, which are linked by the broader theme of admissibility of an application, defining the core elements of an application and defining the limits of the Court’s procedure when considering an application. In the important area of execution of the Court’s judgments, there was a positive development in the year under review in a number of judgments, including, perhaps most famous judgment against the Czech Republic, D. H. and Others, concerning discrimination of Roma pupils in access to education. Resumé: Účelem článku je poskytnout přehled činnosti Evropského soudu pro lidská práva vůči České republice v roce 2023. Štrasburský soud v něm po delším období půstu vydal více než tři desítky rozhodnutí. Jsou mezi nimi i dva rozsudky velkého senátu, které spojuje širší téma přijatelnosti stížnosti, definování základních prvků stížnostní námitky a vymeze ní hranic činnosti Soudu při posuzování stížnosti. I v důležité oblasti výkonu rozsudků Sou du nastal ve sledovaném roce pozitivní posun v řadě rozsudků, mj. i zřejmě nejznámějším rozsudku D. H. a ostatní týkajícím se diskriminace romských žáků v přístupu ke vzdělání. Keywords : conditions for admissibility of an application to the Court; scope of review by the Court; right to life; protection of vulnerable persons; effective investigation; independence of judges; right to an adversarial procedure; best interests of the child; examination of witnesses in criminal proceedings; execution of the Court’s judgments; discrimination of Roma pupils in access to education About the Author: Petr Konůpka has been the Agent of the Government for the representation of the Czech Republic before the European Court of Human Rights since 2023 and Deputy Government Agent since 2013. He graduated in law from the Faculty of Law of Charles University (2004) and in international human rights and humanitarian law from the University of Paris 2 – Panthéon-Assas (2006). He also worked at the International Criminal Court for Rwanda (2006). Introduction After the lean years of 2017–2021, when the Strasbourg Court ruled against the Czech Republic on an average of only 10 applications per year, it decided 33 applications in 2023. It found violations of the European Convention on Human Rights in only two of them, i.e., in less than six percent of cases. If we take into account the applications rejected by the Court by a decision of a single judge, which are not made in writing and are notified to the applicant only by letter, of which there were 315 last year, 1 then last year the Court found a violation of the Convention by the Czech authorities in only 0.6% of cases. What

1 See Analysis of statistics 2023 available here: https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/d/echr/stats-analysis-2023 eng?download=true.

337