site.btaProject for Implementation of ECHR Judgments Concluded Successfully

A Project for the establishment of a National Coordination Mechanism for the effective implementation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), concrete measures for the implementation of the judgments of the Court requiring effective protection of the rights of vulnerable groups, and support to law schools in the teaching of human rights are some of the results achieved by a team of Justice Ministry’s Directorate for representation before the European Court of Human Rights. The activities have been implemented with the financial support of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism under a project  for Strengthening National Capacity for Effective Implementation of ECHR Judgments, the ministry said on Tuesday.

During the final conference of the project, Justice Minister Maria Pavlova said that the Ministry of Justice continues to work hard and purposefully to promote the rule of law, the protection of human rights and equal access to justice, despite the dynamic political environment in recent years, associated with changes in the leadership of the institution.

She noted that the project is specific in that it has drafted a solution to address the negative ranking that puts our country at the top of pending cases before the ECHR in an enhanced procedure.

"Bulgaria is at the top of the negative statistics in the terms of unexecuted judgments and this trend is deepening. This is evidenced by the latest report for 2023 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which was published a few days ago. Our country ranks fourth, after Turkey, Romania and Ukraine, in the number of cases under enhanced procedure," the justice minister stressed.

The statistics are very worrying because the ECHR judgments set a minimum standard for the protection of fundamental rights and the failure to ensure it in the national legislation puts in serious doubt the effective protection of the rights of Bulgarian citizens. At the same time, the inaction of the institutions causes serious reputational damage to our country.

The head of the project Milena Kotseva and her team presented in detail the results, including training of experts, provision of textbooks and other materials on human rights, translation of decisions against Bulgaria and key decisions against other countries.