Euro Court Is Going to Speed Up the Hearing of Cases

A1+

| 20:15:25 | 30-09-2005 | Politics |

EURO COURT IS GOING TO SPEED UP THE HEARING OF CASES

Great as the hopes are to restore justice in the Euro Court, the time you
spend waiting for it to make a decision makes people desperate. In answer to
the questions of «A1+» the president of the European Court of Human Rights
Luzius Wildhaber who is in Armenia at present said,

– The despair of the people is justified, but justified as the complaints of
the RA citizens of your court system may be, the National courts must be
given the possibility to hear the complaints of their citizens. Only in that
case can they apply to the European Court of Human Rights. As for the dates
of hearings, I agree that the process lasts long, and I have always fought
for speeding it up the. The Governments of the CoE member countries have
come to an agreement in this respect, and the 14th protocol has been adopted
according to which the authors of the complaints must be given quick
responses and the hearings must be accelerated. We get 45 thousand cases a
year and we are not able to hear them all.

– In the Euro Court no case from Armenia has been heard up to now. The TV
Company «A1+» was one of the first which applied to the Euro Court. 3 years
have passed, but the case has not been heard.

– I cannot refer to the details of the case. Really, it has been long since
you applied to court, and «A1+» can get details about the procedure via
corresponding mechanisms.

– Today many people in Armenia are worried by the possibility of the
decisions of the Euro Court being ignored by the RA authorities.

– The decisions of the European Court are subject to immediate fulfillment.
It realizes control over the fulfillment of the decisions, and the CoE
member countries report to the CoE Presidents Committee about the process
from time to time.

– How can you account for the fact that no case from Armenia has been heard
in the Euro Court?

– I am very sorry, but we are not able to hear all the cases. The Court has
only 4 chambers, and each chamber can hear only a case in a month.

VIKTORIA ABRAHAMYAN