SC President Took Part in the Opening of the Judicial Year of the European Court of Human Rights

Supreme Court President Vsevolod Kniaziev took part in the official opening of the ECtHR Judicial Year on January 27, 2023 in Strasbourg (France). The event featured a seminar "Judges Preserving Democracy Through the Protection of Human Rights," which brought together many prominent European judges and lawyers.

The opening speech was delivered by the President of the ECtHR Síofra O'Leary. She said that in 2022 Europe withstood the consequences of the pandemic, witnessed significant environmental damage, an energy crisis, and the return of inflation. However, the main and tragic event of 2022 is the return of what seemed impossible: another war on the European continent between two Council of Europe member states.

For this, Russia, as an aggressor state, was expelled from the Council of Europe on March 16, 2022. The ECtHR immediately issued a ruling according to which the Court remained competent to consider applications against the Russian Federation that might constitute a violation of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, provided that the violations had occurred before September 16, 2022. Currently, there are 16,800 cases against Russia pending before the ECtHR.

Siofra O'Leary emphasized that there were eight interstate cases against Russia in the ECtHR proceedings. It is the Court's priority to handle these cases. This was demonstrated, in particular, by the admissibility decision in the case of Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia. The ECtHR remains seized of cases against Russia, which indicates that the country will not be able to use its exclusion from the Council of Europe to avoid accountability for violating the Convention. This is even more important given that some of the cases are of great importance for Russia's accountability under international law.

The ECtHR President believes that democracy, as well as human rights and the rule of law, cannot be achieved once and for good. We must fight for them every day. "The tragic events that have been taking place in Ukraine since February last year and the forces that caused these events have certainly brought to mind the importance of what our ancestors fought so hard for," the speaker said.

Photo courtesy of the European Court of Human Rights.