On 16 May the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted Protocol 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The changes are largely procedural in nature. The Protocol will open for State signature later in the summer and will enter into force three months after all Member States have signed it. The Protocol was drafted following the 2012 Brighton Declaration which sought to address a number of concerns including the consistency of jurisprudence from the European Court of Human Rights and the large number of cases with similar facts coming before the Court.
Click here to read a Bulletin article from last year about the Brighton Declaration.
Changes introduced by the Protocol include:
- References to the principle of subsidiarity (that the primary responsibility for guaranteeing the rights in the Convention rests with the Member States) and the margin of appreciation (on matters of national sensitivity, the European Court of Human Right will defer to the judgment of Member States about how best to ensure Convention rights) have been added to the Convention's Preamble.
- The time limit to submit an application to the Court has changed from six to four months. This time period starts from the date of the final domestic decision.
- The criteria for rejecting applications have been broadened. At present applicants who have not suffered significant disadvantage are rejected provided that their case was duly considered at national level. This proviso will be removed by Protocol 15 to give greater effect to the requirement that applicants have suffered significant disadvantage.
- Parties may no longer object to the relinquishment of a case by a Chamber in favour of the Grand Chamber. This reform is intended to enhance consistency and accelerate proceedings where the case raises a serious issue of interpretation of the Convention or Protocols, or departs from existing case law.
- New judges must be under 65 at the time of their candidacy.
Click here to read Protocol 15