The 47 member states of the Council of Europe have reaffirmed their support for the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and given their backing to a series of measures to improve the implementation of judgments from the Strasbourg court.
Government representatives unanimously adopted the Brussels Declaration, together with an accompanying action plan, at the end of a two-day conference held in the Belgian capital, as part of the country’s chairmanship of the Council of Europe.
The declaration welcomes the results of the ECHR reform process so far, notably the huge drop in cases pending before the court, but adds that additional measures are now needed to deal with challenges including repetitive applications resulting from the non-execution of judgments.
The action plan subsequently outlines a number of steps to be taken by the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights and national authorities to help ensure that judgments from the court are quickly and effectively put into practice.
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, said: “Europe has the best system of international human rights protection anywhere in the world, which is something we can all be proud of.
“The Council of Europe, the court and the member states have a shared responsibility for making sure that the system works effectively and continues to protect some 820 million people across the continent.”
Links to the Reforming the ECHR factsheet and the Execution of judgments website
- The Conference website
- "Reforming the ECHR" factsheet
- Execution of judgments website
- Photo gallery
- Speech by Thorbjørn Jagland,Councilof Europe Secretary General
- Speech by Dean Spielmann, President of the European Court of Human Rights
- Speech by Anne Brasseur, President of the Parliamentary Assembly
See also:
Supervision of the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights
Reforming the European Convention on Human Rights