CEDH · PRESS;ADMISSIBILITYDECISIONS;ENG — 19 juillet 2000

.s3ABFC313 { font-size:10pt } .s598389F9 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; font-size:12pt } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .s85646119 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:justify; font-size:12pt } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .s9E7DF94A { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:right; font-size:12pt } .s23A41E03 { width:36pt; display:inline-block } .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 } .s2EF62ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:12pt } .s3964C3A3 { width:1.36pt; display:inline-block } .s8F6EDF25 { width:42.7pt; display:inline-block } EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS     542                     19.7.2000   Press release issued by the Registrar     Luisa Diamantina Romero de Ibanez and Roberto Guillermo Rojas v. UK inadmissible   The European Court of Human Rights has today found inadmissible an application from two parents of Argentinean conscripts killed as a result of the sinking of the General Belgrano battleship during the conflict between Argentina and the United Kingdom in the South Atlantic in 1982.   The applicants had submitted that the decision of 2 May 1982 to torpedo the ship had violated their sons’ right to life, protected under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.   Sitting as a committee of three judges, the Court rejected the application Luisa Diamantina Romero de Ibanez and Roberto Guillermo Rojas v. United Kingdom (application number 58692/00) on the ground that it had been submitted out of time.   Under the Convention, an application to the Court has to be submitted within six months of a “final decision” on the case. In the present case, in the absence of a final decision, the relevant date was 2 May 1982, the day of the incident itself.   The proceedings in Argentina, which ended on 14 March 2000 with the ruling of the Argentinean High Court of Justice of the Nation, did not constitute domestic remedies requiring exhaustion within the meaning of the Convention as they were not domestic remedies within the United Kingdom.     ***   Registry of the European Court of Human Rights F – 67075 Strasbourg Cedex Contacts:   Roderick Liddell (Telephone: (0)3 88 41 24 92) Or   Emma Hellyer (Telephone: (0)3 90 21 42 15) Fax: (0)3 88 41 27 91     The European Court of Human Rights was set up in 1959 in Strasbourg to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.   On 1 November 1998 a full-time Court was established, replacing the original two-tier system of a part-time Court and Commission.