Strasbourg, 04/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - By adopting the report by the Swiss Liberal Lili Nabholz-Haldegger, in Strasbourg last week, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe launched an appeal for the swift placing at disposal of adequate human and financial resources to enable the European Court of Human Rights to improve in the short-term the worrying situation in which it now finds itself.
The creation of the Court in 1998 was mainly motivated by the endless increase in the number of individual appeals the part-time system, as it was until then, could no longer deal with. But the number of appeals has continued to rise steeply, going from 4,044 in 1988 to 20,538 in 1999, 26,398 in 2000, and already 20,739 for the first seven months of 2001 (over 35,500 expected in 2001), or an increase of 553% in three years. Consequently, the number of cases pending, far from diminishing, has not stopped increasing considerably.
Although the increase in financial resources could alleviate the situation in the short-term, the Assembly recalls that it is the direct application of the Court's case law by the courts and tribunals of Member States, as well as the transposition of the Court's case law into the domestic legislation of Member States that would contribute in considerably reducing the number of appeals to Strasbourg. Likewise, the considerable number of appeals relating to the same types of infringements, notably the length of procedures, could be reduced were States to take adequate measures in carrying out the rulings of the Court.
Adaptation of the Court's working methods and procedures should also contribute to this improvement in the long-term. That is why the Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers of the Organisation begins work to draw up a protocol amending the European Convention on Human Rights aimed at ensuring the European Court of Human rights' long-term efficiency.