Brno, June 20 (CTK) – The level of human rights observance in the Czech Republic and respect for the European Human Rights Court’s (EHRC) judgements were praised by Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland and EHRC President Guido Raimondi today.
They both are attending a specialist conference on the binding character of courts’ decisions.
They noted that the number of complaints against the Czech Republic with the EHRC in Strasbourg and its verdicts issued against the country for breach of the Convention for Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms Protection has decreased.
Jagland said the Czech Republic is a good pupil and that the number of complaints may drop further if the country ratifies a supplementary protocol on the convention, based on which top-level courts can ask the EHCR preliminary questions.
They already send their questions to the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
Raimondi said this makes it possible to resolve cases before they get to Strasbourg.
Czech Constitutional Court (US) chairman Pavel Rychetsky said he expects a similar effect.
He said the institute of preliminary questions could be applied in decision-making on asylum or extradition of foreigners abroad. In the latter case it is a question of whether a given country is safe and if it provides guarantees of a just trial, he said.
“This is a very complex issue and I am not sure whether this will please Strasbourg. We will be very much pleased to ask whether a country fulfils conditions for a person to be extradited there,” Rychetsky told CTK.
Since 1993, the EHRC has made 228 decisions concerning the Czech Republic. In the past, the Czech Republic was among the countries against which the biggest numbers of complaints in all Europe were made, but the number per capita has markedly decreased in the past years, the US says in documents for journalists.
According to web statistics, seven verdicts were issued against the Czech Republic last year. Romania was involved in 258 cases and Hungary in 100.
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