EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ACTION / Alla Tymofeyeva (ed.)

CHAPTER I. THE COURT WITHIN THE EUROP EAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM

1. INTRODUCTION The EuropeanCourt of HumanRights is a judicial body of the European regional international organisation titled ‘the Council of Europe’ (CoE). The CoE together with the European Union (EU) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) form the three main human rights organizations that were created for Europe after World War II. The war had a powerful effect worldwide on understanding human rights, but on the European continent the consequences were even greater. This is why leaders throughout the region founded the organizations whose goal was the protection of human rights on the continent. Although all three of these organizations were founded to bring peace and stability to Europe, they were each established with different purposes. The Council of Europe (CoE) promotes the rule of law, human rights, and democracy. The European Union (EU) was devised as an institution for promoting trade and economic stability for its members. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was founded to maintain peace and military security within Europe. To some extent, all three organizations deal with human rights, but the Council of Europe remains the most involved. Apart from these European organisations; the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which is a regional organisation whose participating countries are some of the former Soviet Republicsmade an effort to establish its own human rights mechanism. On 26 May 1995, the Commonwealth of Independent States adopted the Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms that includes civil and political as well as social and economic human rights. This treaty entered into force in 1998. The Commonwealth of Independent States Convention on Human Rights is modelled on the basis of the European Convention on Human Rights. Though the treaty “on paper” instituted the Human Rights Commission, in practice it does not function. Moreover, on 23 May 2001, the CoE Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) adopted Resolution 1249 (2001) on the co-existence of the Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the European Convention on Human Rights. In this document, the PACE recommended to those CoE member states, which are also members of the CIS not to sign or ratify the CIS Convention on Human Rights. Regarding those CoE member states that are also members of the CIS and have already ratified the CIS Convention on Human Rights, the PACE recommends issuing a legally- binding declaration confirming that the procedures set out in the European Convention on Human Rights shall not be in any way replaced or weakened through recourse to the procedures set out in the CIS Convention on Human Rights. In view of this, this book will not cover this mechanism for human rights protection in Europe. Returning to the three organisations mentioned in the beginning, we are going to briefly describe them and their main human rights activities. Given the purpose of establishing the Council of Europe and the long-term practice of the European Court of Human Rights, we are going to focus on the activity of this international organisation and its institutions the most.

EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ACTION

13