The Reykjavik Declaration: Re-committing to the Convention system and to implementation of judgments of the European Court

Last week, following the Fourth Summit of the Council of Europe, the Heads of State and Government have recommitted to the Convention System, underlining the “shared responsibility” between the states, the Court and the Committee of Ministers, in order to ensure the proper functioning of the Convention system.

Through the Reykjavik Declaration, Member States recalled the responsibility for complying with the judgments of the Court which is incumbent on the “executive, national and local authorities, national courts and national parliaments”.  The ECtHR judgment implementation process is addressed in the Declaration’s Appendix IV “Recommitting to the Convention System as the cornerstone of the Council of Europe’s protection of human rights”.

Member States commit to tackling the non-implementation of judgments of the European Court by developing a more “co-operative, inclusive and political approach based on dialogue”. For this purpose, they have undertaken to:

• Affirm the need for a co-operative and inclusive approach, based on dialogue, in the supervision process to assist States in the execution of the Court’s judgments;

• Scale up co-operation programmes to assist member States in the implementation of judgments, which may involve, as appropriate, States facing the same or similar issues in implementation, and increase synergy between the Department for the Execution of Judgments and the Council of Europe co-operation programmes;

• Call for greater synergy between Council of Europe monitoring and advisory bodies, the Department for the Execution of Judgments and other relevant Council of Europe departments, as appropriate, to facilitate the exchange of good practice and expertise among member States, and underline the importance of holding an annual meeting with national co-ordinators for the execution of judgments and the Department for the Execution of Judgments;

• Call for a strengthening of the institutional dialogue between the Court and the Committee of Ministers on general issues related to the execution of judgments;

• Invite the President of the Committee of Ministers, the Secretary General, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly and the President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities to strengthen their political dialogue with their respective national interlocutors on the implementation of judgments;

• Invite national authorities, as appropriate, to strengthen co-operation with local and regional authorities in order to facilitate the process of executing the judgments which concern them;

• Call for a strengthening of political dialogue in the event of difficulties in the implementation of judgments and encourage the participation of high-level representatives from the respondent State;

• Call on the Committee of Ministers to continue their work enhancing the tools available in the supervision of the execution of judgments with clear and predictable, gradual steps in the event of non-execution or persistent refusal to execute the final judgments of the Court, in an appropriate and flexible way, that takes into account the specificities of each case.

We are glad to see the renewed commitment of the Council of Europe to the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. Many of these undertakings are in line with EIN’s proposals in its call for Reforms to Improve the Implementation of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in view of the Fourth Summit. EIN will closely monitor the execution of these important undertakings and put the expertise of its network at the disposal of all relevant stakeholders to advance the full, timely and effective implementation of ECtHR judgments.