CEDO – the European Court of Human Rights –
is made of Chambers with 7 judges, the Big Chamber with 17 judges and
Committees with 3 judges. This organization is at the disposal of any citizen
that lives in a state that recognizes the Universal Convention, in cases in
which all internal attack ways have been exhausted. Additionally, the European
Council has developed a free juridical assistance system to support those
citizens that have no funds to hire their own attorney. Russia, Turkey and
Romania are top 3 states that are being sued. This organization has closely
worked with the European Commission since 1950, when it started, still after
1990, due to the increasing volume of the judges’ activities, they have reduced
the interdependency.
Judges that are part of CEDO develop their
activity with an individual title not representing any state, unable to
exercise their powers in any activities that is not in accordance with their
obligations, and their seats expire once they get 70 years old. Presently, in CEDO
there is one Romanian judge.
Any citizen that considers that his rights
were broken (right to life, freedom, safety, privacy, family, freedom of
thinking and speaking, consciousness, religion, forbidding slavery. forced
labor, torture, the absence of a fair trial) can address a request to CEDO, but
only after 6 months from the date of the final internal decision, obtained from
the Court graft. On the other hand, the court has the right to reject the
applications that had already received a solution, are submitted without new
evidence or anonymous requests.
This application addressed to CEDO must be
written in one of the official languages of the states members of CEDO, and
after its admission, must be translated into English or French – the official
languages of the Court. The citizen that submits the complaint can do it on its
own or be represented by an attorney, as for those who don’t afford an attorney
they can use the free juridical assistance system. After submitting the request
and its admission, all documents that are considered relevant for the case must
be submitted, most of them being considered opened to the large public. The
next step is the transfer of the request to one of the departments where it
will be examined by the assigned reporter with decision-making enforcement.
After the request is been declared as
admissible, the Court will recommend the involved parties: the applicant and
the state in cause, to try have an amicable resolution. Also, you can appeal
the Chamber’s decisions to the Grand Chambers in three months, and after this
pronunciation, the decisions become final. Either the Court will present the
decisions in open court or in written, these being mandatory in the
international law, thus forcing the state in cause to apply the necessary
measures in order for the human rights that have been broken won’t be broken
again. In the case in which the court rules in the applicant’s favor, the state
in cause will pay a certain amount as moral or material damages, plus the
judgment costs.
