Procedures before CEDO

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.