At its latest meeting to discuss the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (7-9 March), the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers once again urged the Russian authorities to immediately release opposition politician Alexei Navalny.
In the wake of this, on Thursday 9 March, Marija Pejčinović Burić, Secretary General of the Organisation, sent a letter to the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov.
She renewed the calls for the Russian Federation to implement all the Court’s judgments, as required by international law, for cases arising before 16 September 2022 (6 months after its expulsion from the Council of Europe on 16 March).
“This obligation entails the implementation by Russia of individual measures to put, as far as possible, the applicants back in the position they would have been had the violations not occurred, and to adopt general measures to prevent the repetition of similar violations”, the Secretary General wrote.
As Russia has ceased all communication with the Council of Europe on the execution of the Court’s judgments since 3 March 2022, the Committee of Ministers is now exchanging with civil society on this issue.
On 7 March, it held a debate with three NGOs: Memorial Human Rights Defence Center, Mass Media Defence Center and Stichting Justice Initiative.
2,404 Russian cases awaiting execution of judgment are currently under the supervision of the Committee of Ministers.
Information is awaited on the payment of “just satisfaction” in more than a thousand cases.
As of 7 March 2023, the outstanding debt amounted to just over €2 billion, of which about €1.87 billion was related to Yukos.
€1.3 million in default interest is still due in one of the interstate cases, “Georgia v. Russia”.
Letter from the Secretary General to Sergei Lavrov: https://aeur.eu/f/5qg (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)