As Interfax-Ukraine notes, the press service cites data reported by Ukraine's Minister of Justice Oleksandr Lavrynovych. According to these data, in 2000 (the year Ukraine signed the international Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) 1,520 applications were filed with the European Court against Ukraine, in 2001 - 2,104, in 2002 - 2,549. Over 10 months of 2003, 1,732 applications were filed against Ukraine with the European Court.
"Most of these applications are declared inadmissible by the European Court. However, the number of applications that have formal grounds for examination is increasing," notes Oleksandr Lavrynovych. According to him, if in 2000 the European Court found 26 applications admissible and sent them to the Ukrainian government for comments, in 2001 - 13, in 2002 - 18, then as of November 2003, 131 applications had been sent.
Among the main categories of complaints that the European Court has found potentially admissible for examination, the minister cited applications concerning the impossibility of enforcing decisions of national courts, excessive length of proceedings, the use of illegal methods of investigation against defendants, ineffective investigation by the prosecutor's office of complaints of torture, violations of rights during arrest and detention, as well as violations of the procedural rights of Ukrainians.
As previously reported, at the end of April this year, the European Court, having examined the cases of six Ukrainian citizens, ordered Ukraine to pay 2,000 euros to each of the prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment within three months, who had complained to the Court about poor conditions of detention and human rights violations. Ukraine is required to pay two of them an additional 1,000 euros each in legal costs. In total, at that time the European Court had issued decisions in eight cases, seven of which were in favor of the applicants against Ukraine.