European Court of Human Rights - History and Structure

History and Structure

The Court was established on the 21 January 1959 by virtue of Article 19 of the European Convention on Human Rights when eight signatories acknowledged the jurisdiction of the Court. The function of the Court is "to ensure the observance of the engagement undertaken" by the contracting states in relation to the Convention and its protocols. The jurisdiction of the Court has been recognised by 47 European states. Under Protocol no.11 of the Convention, effective since 1 November 1998, the Court became full-time and the European Commission of Human Rights was abolished.

The accession of new states to the European Convention on Human Rights following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 led to a sharp increase in applications to the Court. The effectiveness of the Court was hampered by the large number of pending applications accumulating, which grew steadily. In 1999 8,400 applications were allocated to be heard, in 2003 it was 27,200 cases, with approximately 65,000 pending applications. In 2009 57,200 applications were allocated, with the number of pending applications rising to 119,300. At the time more than 90 percent of applications were deemed inadmissible, and 60 percent of decision by the Court related to what is termed repetitive cases, where the Court has already delivered judgement finding a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights or where well established case law exists. The Protocol no.11 reforms thought to deal with the backlog of pending applications by establishing the Court full-time, simplifying the system and reducing the length of proceedings. However, as the workload of the Court continued to increase, contracting states agreed to reform the Court again and in May 2004 the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers adopted Protocol no.14 to the European Convention on Human Rights. Protocol no.14 aimed to reduce the workload of the Court and that of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which supervises the execution of judgements, so that the Court could focus on cases that raise important human rights issues.