09/04/2025 Session | European Convention on Human Rights
Recalling the “unequivocal obligation” to implement judgments of the Strasbourg Court in a “timely and effective manner”, the Assembly today expressed concern at the failure of some States Parties to the European Convention on Human Rights to remedy the underlying causes of human rights violations identified in certain judgments.
The parliamentarians referred to cases pending implementation which have been classified by the Committee of Ministers as ‘leading’ - which usually highlight a wider human rights problem affecting many people. Nine states have over 40 leading cases pending implementation: Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Republic of Moldova, Poland, Romania, Türkiye and Ukraine. These states also have the highest numbers of leading cases which have been pending implementation for more than five years, indicating that human rights issues are not being resolved in a reasonable period of time.
Adopting a resolution based on a report prepared by Constantinos Efstathiou (Cyprus, SOC), the Assembly urged these countries “to undertake urgent measures to systematically improve their implementation of the Court’s judgments”. While acknowledging that Ukraine faces “specific challenges in light of the war”, it considered “absolutely unacceptable” that in Türkiye the judgement regarding Mr Kavala has not yet been implemented and that he is still imprisoned. The parliamentarians also underlined the “continuing obligation” of the Russian Federation to implement the Court’s judgments and welcomed the measures taken by the Committee of Ministers to continue its supervision of cases concerning this country.
The Assembly invited national parliaments “to play their role” in the execution of judgments of the Court, by implementing the ‘Basic principles for parliamentary supervision of international human rights standards’ set out by the Assembly in Resolution 1823 (2011). These require the establishment of appropriate parliamentary structures “to ensure rigorous and regular monitoring of compliance” with and supervision of international human rights obligations, such as a dedicated human rights committee or an analogous structure.