site.btaNumber of Complaints Against Bulgaria Lodged at European Court of Human Rights Down in 2010-2014

Number of Complaints Against Bulgaria Lodged at European Court of Human Rights Down in 2010-2014

Sofia, March 31 (BTA) - The 2010-2014 period saw a significant decrease in the number of complaints against Bulgaria submitted to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which were referred to a panel of judges, as well as in the number of rulings establishing at least one violation, reads the annual report of the Justice Minister on the implementation of the ECtHR rulings in cases against Bulgaria in 2014. The report was approved by the National Assembly on Thursday.

According to the document, there is a stable trend of improvement in Bulgaria's observation of standards in the sphere of human rights. The factors which have contributed to this are the internal mechanism for reaching an agreement and the positive trend in the duration of the cases' review, the report reads.

The Justice Ministry said that it does not have statistics on the number of complaints lodged in 2015 but the downward trend in their number is expected to continue.

The report reads further that the significant delay in the review of criminal cases concerns the pre-trial phase, and the problem with the excessive workload of the courts in Sofia can to a large extent be solved through the provision of the necessary working space (new buildings for the courts). 

The Justice Minister underscores the need of introducing two additional mechanisms related to the complaints over living conditions in prisons and the permanent monitoring of the legislative process in view of a preliminary assessment of conformity with the ECtHR's standards.

The report gives a positive assessment of the national judge, as well as the other judges in the ECtHR's Registry whose work is related to the complaints' processing.

Justice Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva said that the report gives an honest account of problems facing Bulgaria. The document was elaborated by her predecessor Hristo Ivanov, who resigned in December 2015. "We have a plan and we are working on it. By the end of April the Council of Ministers will propose draft changes to the Code of Criminal Procedure aimed at reducing the duration of pre-trial proceedings," Zaharieva said in Parliament.