At a press conference on Friday 31 January, Marko Bošnjak, President of the European Court of Human Rights, expressed his delight at the continuing decline in the number of cases pending before the Court, noting that 2024 was a “very busy” year.
The measures put in place over several years to keep them out have been effective, and their numbers have fallen from 161,000 in 2011 to 60,350 last December, which is 12% down on December 2023, when there were 68,450.
Three quarters of these pending applications concern Turkey after the attempted coup d'état in 2016; Ukraine; Russia - excluded from the Council of Europe in March 2022 after the start of its war in Ukraine, but still accountable to the Court for events prior to September 2022 - Romania, and Greece.
Some of the Russian cases are interstate, and one of them concerns the destruction of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over the Donbass after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
A Grand Chamber hearing was held on 24 June in Strasbourg, in the presence of representatives of the Dutch (the plane left Amsterdam for Malaysia) and Ukrainian governments, but in the absence of Kremlin envoys charged with defending Russia, which has been indicted.
The judgement may be handed down in the coming months.
For the Court, 2025 will also be the 75th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights, on which it bases its case law.
It is unique in the world for its binding nature, committing signatory states to respect human life, privacy, freedom of expression, thought, religion and assembly, and to prohibit torture, slavery and discrimination.
These are intangible rights, but they are under threat at a time when the rule of law and multilateralism are being challenged every day.
Regretting that public expression is becoming “increasingly brutal”, Marko Bošnjak advocates “resilience” in the face of unfounded criticism, as it is “impossible to engage in dialogue with those who are acting in bad faith”. However, when it comes to the Court, he is determined to descend from his “ivory tower” and engage in dialogue with society, particularly during the events that will commemorate this anniversary year. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)