Implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights

Recommendation 2295 (2025)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 9 April 2025 (15th sitting) (see Doc. 16134, report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, rapporteur: Mr Constantinos Efstathiou). Text adopted by the Assembly on 9 April 2025 (15th sitting).

1. Referring to its Resolution 2599 (2025) “Implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights”, the Parliamentary Assembly welcomes the measures taken by the Committee of Ministers and the Council of Europe in general to implement sections of the 2023 Reykjavik Declaration relating to the implementation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (the Court). These include steps taken to increase the resources of the Department for the Execution of Judgments, increase the synergy between the Department for the Execution of Judgments and Council of Europe co-operation programmes, increase the transparency of the judgment supervision process, establish a network of national co-ordinators for the implementation of judgments, strengthen the institutional dialogue between the Court and the Committee of Ministers, carry out joint activities with the Assembly and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, and set out predictable, gradual steps to be taken by the Committee of Ministers prior to initiating the infringement procedure under Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5, the Convention).

2. The vast majority of the Court’s judgments are implemented. Nevertheless, and despite the work done to carry out the steps requested by the heads of State and government in the Reykjavik Declaration, the number of leading cases pending implementation remains high. The Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers further intensify its work to implement the measures set out in the Reykjavik Declaration to improve the implementation of the Court’s judgments.

3. The Assembly recalls the pivotal role that the implementation of the Court’s judgments plays in the Convention system and the workload of the Court. Given the high proportion of cases from the Court which are classified as repetitive, funding additional work to promote the implementation of the Court’s judgments, particularly with regard to leading cases, is an investment in the system which will ensure its long-term sustainability. The Assembly therefore calls for:

3.1 a further increase in the resources available to the Department for the Execution of Judgments;

3.2 an increase in funding for technical co-operation projects aiming to promote the implementation of judgments of the Court, with a particular focus on leading cases revealing structural or complex problems;

3.3 continued funding and State engagement for the project Support to Efficient Domestic Capacity for the Execution of ECtHR [Court] Judgments in particular, given its critical role in building national capacities for judgment implementation.

4. The Assembly also notes that the Reykjavik Declaration called for a strengthening of political dialogue in the event of difficulties in the implementation of judgments and encouraged the participation of high-level representatives from respondent States. The Assembly calls on the Committee of Ministers to redouble its efforts to ensure high-level engagement in discussions on the implementation of the Court’s judgments in order to facilitate dialogue at the political level. The Assembly will intensify its own activities to promote political dialogue in difficult cases.

5. Further, in regard to its own activities, the Assembly welcomes the recognition in the Reykjavik Declaration of the importance of involving national parliaments in the execution of judgments, as well as the invitation to the President of the Assembly to strengthen his political dialogue with national interlocutors on the implementation of judgments. The Assembly further welcomes the Committee of Ministers’ decision of 7 February 2024 to invite “the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities to strengthen their dialogue with their respective national interlocutors on the implementation of judgments, at both the political and technical levels, and [its instruction to] the Department for the Execution of Judgments to assist” (CM/Del/Dec(2024)1488/4.4).

6. The Assembly notes the steps it has taken to enhance the work of parliamentarians to promote the implementation of the Court’s judgments in accordance with the Reykjavik Declaration, including strengthening support for the President of the Assembly to raise the issue of the implementation of judgments in high-level meetings, and the organisation of briefings by the Department for the Execution of Judgments for national delegations on the implementation of the Court’s judgments in member States. The Assembly expresses its intention to further intensify its activities in this area.