What is the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)?
The European Court of Human Rights is an international judicial organization established in 1959 for the purpose of protecting certain fundamental rights and freedoms. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) regulates the rights and freedoms protected by the jurisdiction of the court. The ECHR is the most basic human rights document that defines the limits of both the right of individual application and the jurisdiction of the ECHR.
In order to apply to the European Court of Human Rights, all the usual domestic remedies must be exhausted. Even if all internal legal avenues were not exhausted during the application, the application is also examined if the internal legal avenues were exhausted after the application was submitted by the date the ECTHR decides on the individual application.
The application to the ECHR is made using the “ECHR Individual Application Form”. The application form must be filled out duly, otherwise the result of a procedural refusal of the application may be encountered.
Who Can Apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)?
According to the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, individuals or legal entities and communities with the right to make individual applications to the ECHR are as follows:
A right protected in the Convention (ECHR) by another contracting state
states that believe that they have been violated have the right to apply to the ECHR.
Individuals who feel that their rights protected by the contract have been violated have the right to make an individual application.
Private legal entities have the right to apply.
An application must be submitted on behalf of the children by their mother or father, whose legal status is appropriate.
Non-governmental organizations and groups of persons have the right to apply to the ECHR. Religious communities, trade unions, political parties, associations, de facto communities that gather around the same interest and therefore consider that one of the rights defined in the contract has been violated, do not bear the title of legal entity, have the right to apply to the ECHR. Non-governmental organizations and groups can apply only because of the damages suffered by the organization or group. Non-governmental organizations or communities cannot apply to represent them due to the individual grievances of members of the organization or group.
If the individual applicant dies during the application process, his heirs may continue the application by submitting the certificate of succession.
It is not mandatory that the application be submitted by a lawyer. However, the court requests that the application be conducted through a lawyer after the decision on admissibility has been made. For this reason, in order to avoid problems that may arise and to prevent the rejection of the application for any reason, it is useful to have the application made and executed by a lawyer from the very beginning.
Duration and Method of Application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)
The application period to the ECHR is 6 months from the date when domestic remedies have been exhausted or a violation of rights has arisen.
French English are the official languages used by the ECTHR. However, the first application can also be made using the official language of the contracting state. For example, a citizen living in Turkey will be able to fill out an individual application form in Turkish. It is not necessary to translate the documents to be added.
After the decision on the admissibility of an individual application has been made, the application is forwarded to the government of the state against which the application was filed to give its opinion. French English or, as a rule, correspondence is required after the application has been submitted to the government. However, at this stage, after obtaining permission from the president of the court, the applicant may continue to communicate in the official language of the contracting state. English Frenchs shall be the only language of the application, but the letters and decisions sent to the applicant by the court shall be in English or French.
In order to apply to the ECHR; If the application is made through a representative, the authorization document prepared by the court must be signed by the applicant and his representative, the documents to be added and the court decisions must be added to the form by providing a sequence number in accordance with the date order. It is also desirable to attach a photocopy of the applicant’s identity to the application. The application form and other documents should be placed in an envelope without being punched and punched with a punch, inserted into a file or folder. Individual applications and their annexes should be sent by mail to the following address of the Octoberr with a refund and a commitment:
The ECTHR’s Postal Address is: European Court Of Human Rights, Council Of Europe, 67075 Starsbourg Cedex – FRANCE
The ECHR’s Review of the Application and the Decision Process
After the individual application reaches the ECHR, a letter will be sent to the applicant stating that the application has been received and registered. If there is a deficiency in the application in this letter, it may also be requested to complete that deficiency.
In the first examination, the ECHR may decide that an individual application is inadmissible on the grounds of duration, non-exhaustion of domestic remedies, insignificance of the subject matter of the application, lack of basis, or any other justification determined by the court, due to the inadmissibility of the application. The inadmissibility decisions issued by the ECHR are final.
If an inadmissibility decision is not made after the initial examination of the application, the opinions of the parties on the conclusion of the case by amicable settlement are often asked by sending a “DECLARATION” to both parties, that is, to both the applicant and the government of the contracting state, depending on the subject and importance of the file. If the parties, together with a letter stating that they accept the submitted declaration, send the signed declaration to the court, the court concludes the application by deciding that the amount of compensation specified in the declaration be paid to the applicant by the contracting state. If the parties do not accept the declaration, they must send a letter to the court stating the reason for this and stating that they do not accept the declaration.
The name and number of the application should be written on the letters sent to the ECTHR and, in case the letters are lost, they should be sent with a return commitment. A sample of the letters and documents sent to the ECTHR should remain in the applicant’s own file.
If it is not possible to resolve the file by amicable resolution, the ECHR, in its decision on admissibility; stating which articles of the agreement may be violated according to the content of the application, notifies the relevant government of the application and requests the answers of the contracting government in this regard.
After receiving the government’s answers, the ECHR sends these answers to the applicant in a letter October and at the latest on the date specified in the letter; It is requested to inform the applicant’s answers to the government’s answers, their claims for compensation, the costs incurred for the application, the attorney’s fee they will charge. Documents on the requested compensation, expenses and attorney’s fee must also be sent. The ECHR requires that a photocopy of the self-employment receipt be sent if an attorney’s fee is requested. Otherwise, they do not pay a lawyer’s fee or set a generally low amount that they will consider appropriate. It is enough to send a photocopy of the documents to be sent.
One of the common mistakes made in ECHR applications is the following;
The applicant writes down the amount of compensation that he will ask for in the application form, after all, he does not make a request for it again in the response petition, which must be sent later, that is, after the government’s answers have been received, saying that he wrote it on the application form. The ECHR does not take into account that the amounts of compensation have been written in the application form. In the petition for a response to the government’s responses, it requests that the amounts of material and non-pecuniary compensation be rewritten. Therefore, even if the required amount of compensation is written on the application form, at the stage when the government’s answers come and requests for fair compensation are requested, the required amount of material and non-material compensation must necessarily be rewritten, documents on attorney’s fees and expenses must be sent. Otherwise, even if a violation decision is made by the court, compensation will not be decided. In fact, it is sufficient to request the claim section of the application form to identify the violations specified in the application form and to correct the material and moral damages suffered due to the violation.
Urgent Application and Request for Measures to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)
If there is a possibility of violation of the right to life and the prohibition of torture, or if there is a violation of the applicant’s right to life and the right to a ban on torture in the country to which he will be sent if the applicant is deported, it is possible to file an urgent application and request a precautionary measure. In this case, the court requests information by notifying the government of the application as soon as possible. The ECHR may, if it deems it necessary, take a temporary injunction to prevent the violation and request the implementation of the measures taken from the relevant government.
