HUMAN RIGHTS

DR CHARLOTTE CAMILLERI CITTA DELLA PIEVE

DECEMBER 2005

Human rights are divided into 3 branches:political, socio-cultural and economic, cultural.

Each High Court in EU Member States often decide human rights issues according to its society, culture and code of ethics. Nevertheless if a European Citizen feels prejudiced by such a decision then he/she has the right to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights. This Court takes a neutral approach in its decisions

Composition of ECHR

The European Court of Human Rights is situated in Strasbourg. The Court can be either composed of 3 judges, or in more important and elaborate issues by 5 judges.

Parties to the Suit

Parties bringing cases before the European Court of Human Rights can be 21.      state vs state2.      individual vs statebut can never be horizontal, that is, can never have an individual filing a human rights case against another individual.

All 25 EU Member States and the 41 members of the Council of Europe can present their cases to the European Court of Human Rights

.

In order to make recourse to the European Court of Human Rights, either the state or the individual, as the case may be, must satisfy the following criteria:

a. must have exhausted all local remediesb. must comply with the six month period

Functions

The functions of the European Court are to examine domestic legislation and determine whether it violates the European Convention on Human Rights (1950). In the eventuality that it does, then the Court can impose political sanctions on the State. The decisions of the European Court of Justice are binding and the States usually regulate their position quickly.

Stages

Each case is divided into two stages, oral pleadings and written submissions. It is obligatory that when a private individual takes a case before the European Court, then in the panel of judges must be included one judge of the same nationality and this for two reasons:

To avoid biasSo as to ensure the presence of a judge

knowledgeable about domestic law in question.

Moreover the individual has to be assisted by a lawyer