Building of the European Court of Human Rights
Thus, according to the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, in 2000, when Ukraine signed the international Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 1,520 applications were filed against Ukraine with the ECHR, in 2001 – 2,104, in 2002 – 2,549. And every year this figure only increases.
Among the key categories of complaints that have been recognized by the European Court as potentially admissible for review, experts cite applications about the impossibility of enforcing national court decisions, excessive length of proceedings, use of illegal investigative methods against defendants and ineffective investigation by the prosecutor's office of complaints of torture, violations of rights during arrest and detention, and violations of Ukrainians' procedural rights.
Just last year, the European Court of Human Rights issued 187 judgments on the merits against Ukraine. Another approximately 400 complaints were communicated to the government for observations. It should be noted that the European Court of Human Rights first considered a complaint against Ukraine about non-enforcement of a court decision in 2004, and subsequently issued several hundred more such judgments.
However, not only Ukrainians but also citizens of all 47 member states of the Council of Europe apply to the European Court. The top positions in terms of applications to the ECHR are occupied by Russia, Turkey, Romania, Ukraine, Italy and Poland.
Today, more than 90% of complaints received by the ECHR are inadmissible. Therefore, to citizens who wish to apply to the European Court, ECHR judge Anna Yudkovskaya advises finding a lawyer who specializes in the work of this particular court. Only in this case will the specialist be able to assess the chances of success, explain the Court's practice, and advise what domestic remedies need to be exhausted before applying to the European Court.
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