MANY TO MANY 66 HUMAN RIGHTS GO TO COURT

HUMAN RIGHTS GO TO COURT – an example to follow?

The first court in the world where citizens can file complaints against their governments for the violation of human rights came into being in Strasbourg (France) in the first week of November 1998.

The new court is unprecedented in legal history. It has jurisdiction over sane 800 million people from Greenland to Russia and will have 40 judges, one from each state of the Council of Europe.

In place of the old part-time two-tier structure of the European Commission of Human Rights and European Court of Human Rights a new single court now operates full- time. It will be totally judicial with no political element. It is expected to deal with about 5,000 cases a year. The rights of individuals in every member state to petition the court is automatic and no government will be able to opt out. The cases cover the whole spectrum of rights guaranteed under the Convention on Human Rights – from the right to privacy to the right to a fair trial, from the right not to be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment to the right to freedom of expression.

There will naturally be the problem of ensuring that states comply with judgments if the court is not to lose credibility and this formidable challenge will need to be faced by a committee of ministers of the Council of Europe.

Acknowledgement: The Times (London), 3 November, 1998.

Anthony Brooke and Gita Brooke, co-founders
Te Rangi, 4 Allison Street, Wanganui 5001, New Zealand
phone/fax: +64-6-345-5714 ~ e-mail: Many to Many
under the aegis of
Operation Peace Through Unity
is a communicating link between
'we, the peoples' of all nations, races, creeds and ideologies offering in the spirit of the preamble of the United Nations Charter an instrument for the furthering of better relationships based on deepening mutual understanding and the aspiration to promote unity and cooperation beyond all differences.