CEDH · PRESS;GENERAL;ENG — 29 janvier 2009

.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 } .s83BE5C30 { font-family:Arial; font-size:8pt; vertical-align:super } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .s3DC36BA9 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline; color:#0069d6 } .sCB9E0544 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:left } .sC7EAD8B { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:underline } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS   70 29.1.2009   Press release issued by the Registrar   Press conference with the President of the European Court of Human Rights   At a press conference in Strasbourg today the President of the Court, Jean-Paul Costa, said that on the occasion of the Court’s 50 th anniversary this year a very positive assessment could be made of the Court’s impact over the last fifty years. Looking to the future, he called upon the member States of the Council of Europe to reaffirm their commitment to human rights and their support for the Court’s work, while at the same time reflecting with the Court on how to adapt the protection mechanism to the needs of the 21 st century.   He stressed the size of the current caseload (nearly 100,000 cases pending), which is constantly increasing, and noted that, regrettably, the various reform proposals had reached an apparent impasse, even if he remained hopeful that the different obstacles could be surmounted. At the same time the Court could not simply go on increasing its staff and resources indefinitely, although it would still be necessary to provide the Court with additional means in the short to medium term.   Mr Costa said that something had to be done to safeguard the long-term effectiveness of the system. The main lines of the reform were clear: comprehensive implementation of the Convention standards at domestic level; effective execution of the Court's judgments by Member States to ensure that the Court was not overloaded with large numbers of similar cases and a   re-structured protection mechanism allowing the Court's efforts to be concentrated as a matter of priority on the important well-founded cases.   The President stated that the Court had delivered 1,543 judgments in 2008, 3% up on 2007, and 30,163 decisions, 11% up. He explained that this considerable activity had not reduced the backlog, as some 50,000 new applications had been allocated to a judicial formation in 2008, 20% more than in 2007.   He also pointed out that 57% of applications had been lodged against just four States (the Russian Federation, Turkey, Romania and Ukraine), with the remaining 43% covering the other 43 Member States.   While this high caseload showed the confidence that the European public placed in the Court, it carried with it a risk of saturation. The Court had to work together with the Council of Europe and national authorities on improving the information available to the public with a view to getting across to them a clearer message about what the Convention and therefore the Court could do for them and what fell outside their reach.   Also at this press conference, the Court's annual table of violations per country was published for 2008 . It shows that Turkey was the country that gave rise to the greatest number of judgments (257) in which at least one violation of the Convention was found, followed by Russia (233), Romania (189), Poland (129) and Ukraine (110).   ***   Further information about the Court can be found on its Internet site ( http://www.echr.coe.int ).   Press contacts Patrick Titiun (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 90 21 42 08) Stefano Piedimonte (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 90 21 42 04) Tracey Turner-Tretz (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 88 41 35 30) Paramy Chanthalangsy (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 88 41 28 30) Kristina Pencheva-Malinowski (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 88 41 35 70) Céline Menu-Lange (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 90 21 58 77)   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.