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At the OAS, President of the European Court of Human Rights Highlights Similarities Between the Inter-American and the European Human Rights Systems

The President of the European Court of Human Rights, Judge Nicolas Bratza, was received today at a meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) during which he stressed that “the universality of fundamental human rights and the transcendent character of values underpinning international human rights law make up both the motive and the purpose of the systems developed in Europe and in the Americas, which have common goals, language and approaches.”

In his presentation to the delegates of the Council, Judge Bratza presented an overview of the European human rights system, its history, composition, regulation, and evolution. He talked about the creation of the European Court of Human Rights based in Strasbourg, France, noting that when the 11 Protocol of the Convention took effect in 1998 the Court was redesigned as a "full-time body that can directly access the applicants, which was an important step forward for human rights in Europe, since it comes at a time of great change, when the Council of Europe grew rapidly in its membership in the years following the collapse of totalitarian regimes in Europe. "

Judge Bratza also referred to some of the challenges the Court is facing today emphasizing the high number of pending cases. "There are in all more than 150 .000 application pending before the Court, this is far beyond what the court can manage to deal with, the trend is an upward one and it has been so for over 30 years" he informed and explained the measures taken to handle this and other challenges of the institution, among which he pointed out the joint work with national jurisdictions to accelerate processes and promote friendly settlement.

By alluding to the similarities and the relationship between the European Court and the Inter-American Court, the British Judge said that “for all the physical distance between San Jose and Strasbourg the two courts have maintained direct” and stressed the participation of the Inter-American Court at several international judicial conferences as well as the possibility of staff exchanges between the two institutions "in order to share the benefits of our long experiences of human rights cases.”

“The European Court has drawn valuable inspiration from the Inter American court and Commission on issues such as disappearances, torture, state liability for human rights violations perpetrated by private parties and, protection against repeat criminal prosecution on the same fact,” he affirmed and denominated the exchange as a “normative dialogue on human rights which has been very valuable today and no doubt to develop in the future.” Finally, he recalled that the values underpinning international human rights law are: life, dignity, freedom, justice and the quality. All of which are common to the European and American systems.

After the presentation, the representatives of the United States, Haiti, Canada, El Salvador, Honduras, Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Argentina and Uruguay, took the floor to welcome the visit of President of the European Court and noted that it should serve as a tool and inspiration to strengthen the inter-American system. The OAS diplomats also commented the criteria value, ownership and scope of the European human rights system, and encouraged to continue working together to advance and learn from each other's experiences and knowledge.

The delegates also recognized that there are common challenges and experiences between the two Courts, referring in particular to the challenge of the universality of the system and the growing number of unsolved cases. Finally they highlighted the relevance of the presentation given the importance of the issue of strengthening the Inter-American Human Rights System in the current institutional agenda.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-065/12