CEDH · PRESS;GENERAL;ENG — 30 septembre 2004

.s800EAC49 { font-size:12pt } .sFE10DC93 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .s40F41F73 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:right } .s32563E28 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .s2EB42ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } .sADADF4A7 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline } .s2E932ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:11pt } .s99A63BFE { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:left; font-size:11pt } .s5D8BCAF7 { width:3.12pt; display:inline-block } .s9E97F54A { width:85.05pt; display:inline-block } EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS 468 30.9.2004   Press release issued by the Registrar   Polish length-of-proceedings cases given priority   The European Court of Human Rights is examining the effectiveness of various new remedies for Polish length-of-proceedings cases. Four leading cases have been given priority and around 700 similar cases have been adjourned.   The applicants in these cases all complain that they were denied a hearing within a reasonable time, in breach of Article 6 (right to a fair hearing) of the European Convention on Human Rights, and, in most cases, that they had no effective remedy, relying on Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the Convention.   New Polish legislation was introduced on 17 September 2004 in response to the European Court of Human Right’s Grand Chamber judgment in the case Kudła v. Poland (application no.   30210/96), in which the Court held that the lack of an effective remedy for a breach of the right to a hearing within a reasonable time was in violation of Article 13.     The new law is designed to provide such an effective remedy. It allows those involved in court proceedings to file a complaint concerning the length of their proceedings while those proceedings are still pending. The appellate court can find a violation of Article 6, instruct the lower court to take measures to accelerate the proceedings and award the complainant just satisfaction of up to PLN   10,000 (approximately EUR 2,250). In addition, those involved in proceedings which have finished can seek damages from the State.   The new remedy is also available to individuals who lodged applications with the European Court of Human Rights while their domestic proceedings were still pending, provided their applications have not yet been declared admissible by the Court. They have until 17 March 2005 to apply to the Polish courts.   *** Further information about the Court can be found on its Internet site ( http://www.echr.coe.int ).   Registry of the European Court of Human Rights F – 67075 Strasbourg Cedex Press contacts:   Roderick Liddell (telephone: +00 33 (0)3 88 41 24 92)   Emma Hellyer (telephone: +00 33 (0)3 90 21 42 15)   Stéphanie Klein (telephone: +00 33 (0)3 88 41 21 54) Fax: +00 33 (0)3 88 41 27 91   The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. Since 1 November 1998 it has sat as a full-time Court composed of an equal number of judges to that of the States party to the Convention. The Court examines the admissibility and merits of applications submitted to it. It sits in Chambers of 7 judges or, in exceptional cases, as a Grand Chamber of 17 judges. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe supervises the execution of the Court’s judgments.