STRASBOURG (AFP)–The European Court of Human Rights said it issued 2,395 rulings in 2009, an increase of 27 percent from the previous year, with Turkey and Russia as the biggest offenders, according to annual figures released Thursday.
Judges issued 341 rulings against Turkey, more than 200 of them concerning the workings of its national courts and 30 following complaints of inhuman or degrading treatment.
Russia remained in second place with 210 rights violations, including three for torture and 84 for inhuman treatment – mostly from war-torn Chechnya.
Russia is also by far the biggest source of complaints with 28 percent. The foreign ministry in Moscow says many these relate to conditions in jails and abuses committed by government forces in Chechnya.
The Russian parliament has just voted to ratify a key protocol that allows reforms streamlining the Strasbourg court to go ahead.
The protocol had been blocked by Moscow lawmakers in 2006 amid complaints that the court was anti-Russian.
Europe’s top rights court is battling to come to grips with an increasing workload that soared by nearly a quarter last year. The number of pending cases at the Strasbourg tribunal rose by 23 percent to 119,300, the court said in its annual report.
The European Court of Human Rights, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, can be appealed to by 818 million people in the 47-country Council of Europe if they feel their national courts have failed.
turkey wants in the E.U. How stupid can you be. I always said 70% of their population is ILLITERATE!!!
Hye, starting with the year 2009, and counting backwards all the years of the 20th century and into the 19th century – the Turkish victims – their in humanity to innocents/to humans , shall be counted in the millions upon millions – just for not being Turkish, and more. Turkey for all its
‘glitter’ and claims to be a democracy! is still in the Ottoman and Asian hordes mentality. Only
a totally replaced government – as were the Nazis of Germany after WWII, is the only hope for those of Turkey seeking democracy. Manooshag
Why am I not surprised? Their history is painted in red blood.
The only time these savages will stop killing innocent peoples is when Orhan Pamuk becomes their president, otherwise, the turkish massacres of Armenians and Kurds will continue unabated.
Ferhat