On February 3, the European Court of Human Rights issued a press release in which it pointed out the peculiarities of considering cases against Russia that arose in connection with the exclusion of Russia from the Council of Europe on March 16, 2022, the termination of the Conventional obligations for Russia from September 16, 2022, the complete refusal of Russia cooperate with the Council of Europe and with the European Court, which now lacks a Russian judge.
This release confirmed the principles that the ECtHR had already outlined in general in the decision on the interstate complaint against the aggressor about the violation of human rights in the East of Ukraine since 2014.
Thus, the Court will consider violations that occurred before September 16, 2022, instead of a judge of Russia, its function will be performed by one of its judges appointed by the ECtHR. The court indicated that at the moment it has accumulated about 16,700 cases against Russia, of which 12,000 will be considered under simplified procedures.
Also, Ukraine’s Government Agent to the ECtHR Margarita Sokorenko emphasized the significance of the current communication from the Court, which contains both many individual statements about human rights violations in the Crimea and a number of interstate statements against Russia.
These are, in particular, two lawsuits of Georgia against the Russian Federation, two lawsuits of Ukraine already considered by the court on the admissibility of the case of the Russia’s occupation since 2014 of the Crimea and the East of Ukraine, as well as Ukraine’s submissions on the facts of the capture of sailors in the Kerch incident of 2018, on the policy of Russia’s liquidating of its opponents on territory of the member states of the Council of Europe, as well as a statement on human rights violations in Ukraine by Russian aggressors from February 24 to September 16, 2022.
