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European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court,[1] is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a contracting state has breached one or more of the human rights enumerated in the convention or its optional protocols to which a member state is a party. The court is based in Strasbourg, France.

This article is about the international court of the Council of Europe (not of the European Union). For the EU's judicial branch, see Court of Justice of the European Union. For the supreme court of the EU in matters of Union law, see European Court of Justice.

European Court of Human Rights

  • 1959 (initially)
  • 1998 (permanent)

46 member states of the Council of Europe

Strasbourg, France

Appointed by member states and elected by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

46 judges, one from each of the 46 member states

2013 (judge), 2020 (President)

The court was established in 1959 and decided its first case in 1960 in Lawless v. Ireland. An application can be lodged by an individual, a group of individuals, or one or more of the other contracting states. Aside from judgments, the court can also issue advisory opinions. The convention was adopted within the context of the Council of Europe, and all of its 46 member states are contracting parties to the convention. The court's primary means of judicial interpretation is the living instrument doctrine, meaning that the Convention is interpreted in light of present-day conditions.


International law scholars consider the ECtHR to be the most effective international human rights court in the world.[2][3][4][5][6] Nevertheless, the court has faced challenges with verdicts not implemented by the contracting parties.

As a court of the Council of Europe[edit]

The European Court of Human Rights, which enforces the European Convention on Human Rights, is the best known body of the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe (CoE) (French: Conseil de l'Europe, CdE) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe.[9] Founded in 1949, it now has 46 member states, covering a population of approximately 700 million, and operates with an annual budget of approximately 500 million euros.[10]


The organisation is distinct from the 27-nation European Union (EU), although it is sometimes confused with it, partly because the EU has adopted the original flag of Europe created by the Council of Europe in 1955,[11] as well as the anthem of Europe.[12] No country has ever joined the EU without first belonging to the Council of Europe.[13] The Council of Europe is an official United Nations observer.[14]

Plenary court and administration[edit]

The plenary court is an assembly of all of the court's judges. It has no judicial functions. It elects the court's president, vice-president, registrar[22] and deputy registrar. It also deals with administrative matters, discipline, working methods, reforms, the establishment of Chambers and the adoption of the Rules of Court.[16]


The president of the court, the two vice-presidents (also section presidents) and the three other section presidents are elected by the Plenary Court, Section presidents are elected by the Plenary Court, a formation made up of the 46 elected judges of the court. The mandate of the holders is for a renewable period of three years. They are renowned for their morality and competence. They must be independent and there is incompatibility with other functions. They cannot be revoked by their state of origin, but only by decision of their peers, taken by a two-thirds majority and for serious reasons.[23]


The president of the court is Robert Spano from Iceland and the two vice-presidents are Jon Fridrik Kjølbro from Denmark and Ksenija Turkovic from Croatia.[24]

(no. 5310/71), judgement of 18 January 1978 on inhuman and degrading treatment in Northern Ireland (art. 3)

Ireland v. United Kingdom

Denmark v. Turkey (no. 34382/97), judgement of 5 April 2000 ratifying a of 450,000 DKK regarding a Danish national detained in Turkey (art. 3)

friendly settlement

(IV) (no. 25781/94), judgements of 10 May 2001 on the treatment of missing persons (art. 2, 3 and 5), the right of return of Greeks who have fled to the south (art. 8, 13 and P1-1), the rights of Greeks still living in the north (art. 3, 8, 9, 10, 13, P1-1, P1-2) and trial by military courts (art. 6). A subsequent judgement of 12 May 2014 awarded €90 million in 'just satisfaction' (art. 41)

Cyprus v. Turkey

Georgia v. Russian Federation (I) (no. 13255/07), judgement of 3 July 2014 on the collective expulsion of Georgians from Russia (art. 3, 5, 13, 38, P4-4) and Russia not cooperating with the court (art. 38)

Georgia v. Russian Federation (II) (no. 38263/08), judgement of 21 January 2021

Just satisfaction[edit]

The court may award pecuniary or non-pecuniary damages, called "just satisfaction". The awards are typically small in comparison to verdicts by national courts and rarely exceed £1,000 plus legal costs.[35] Non-pecuniary damages are more closely correlated to what the state can afford to pay than the specific harm suffered by the complainant. In some cases, repeated patterns of human rights violations lead to higher awards in an effort to punish the responsible state, but paradoxically in other cases they lead to lower awards, or the cases being struck entirely.[36][37]

In (2005), and several subsequent cases, the court found that a blanket deprivation of suffrage to British prisoners violated Article 3 of Protocol 1, which guarantees the right to vote. A minimal compromise was implemented in 2017.[76][77]

Hirst v. United Kingdom

The was first ruled to be discriminatory in 2009 (Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina), for preventing Bosnian citizens who were not of Bosniak, Croat, or Serb ethnicity from being elected to certain state offices. As of December 2019, the discriminatory provisions have yet to be repealed or amended, despite three subsequent cases confirming their incompatibility with the Convention.[78][79]

Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina

In (2010), the ban on Moscow Pride was judged to violate freedom of assembly. In 2012, Russian courts banned the event for the next 100 years.[80][81][82] The ECtHR confirmed its ruling that bans on pride parades violate freedom of assembly rights in Alekseyev and Others v. Russia (2018).[83]

Alekseyev v. Russia

(2017), relating to the Russian gay propaganda law and related laws, which the court judged to abridge freedom of speech.[81][82]

Bayev and Others v. Russia

Azerbaijani opposition politician , whose imprisonment the ECtHR ruled illegal in 2014; he was still in jail in 2017.[74]

Ilgar Mammadov

Following Burmych and Others v. Ukraine (2017), the ECtHR dismissed all 12,143 cases following the pattern of Ivanov v. Ukraine (2009) as well as any future cases following that pattern, handing them to the Department of Execution at the Council of Europe for enforcement. These cases all involved complainants not being paid money they were due under Ukrainian law.[84] In the eight years between Ivanov and Burmych, Ukraine made no effort to resolve these cases, leading the ECtHR to "effectively [give] up on trying to incentivize Ukraine to comply with its judgments".[36] As of 2020, the money owed to the complainants in these cases remains unpaid.[36]

[36]

Honours and awards[edit]

In 2010, the court received the Freedom Medal from the Roosevelt Institute.[126] In 2020, the Greek government nominated the court for the Nobel Peace Prize.[127]

Strasbourg Observers

– regional court established in 2006

African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights

Human rights in Europe

– regional court established in 1979

Inter-American Court of Human Rights

List of LGBT-related cases before international courts and quasi-judicial bodies

Category:European Court of Human Rights case law

Edit this at Wikidata

Official website

Court judgments, decisions and case law website

Rules of the court (PDF)

The European Union's accession to the European Convention on Human Rights