European Court of Human Rights (Q&A - Excerpt from the daily press briefing - 18.04.12)

A : France reaffirms its attachment to the European Court of Human Rights. It believes that it plays a critical role in the advancement of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe, which are parties to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

The Court has been receiving an ever-increasing volume of applications for several years now: almost 65,000 per year and an accumulation of almost 152,000 applications. As a result, the average time taken to judge cases is 7 years, which undermines the right of individual petition.

Since 2010, the States Parties, including France, have been developing, in collaboration with the Court, the reforms needed to resolve this situation.

The Brighton Conference is part of this process and we hope that the final declaration will allow us to make progress in several directions: by increasing the accountability of the States through the implementation of the Convention at the national level; by strengthening the Court’s authority so that the States Parties and the Court can, at their respective levels, best ensure the implementation of human rights on the European continent.