II Council of Europe
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410802600106 |
| Author | Yves Haeck,Leo Zwaak |
| Published date | 01 March 2008 |
| Date | 01 March 2008 |
| Subject Matter | Part B: Human Rights News |
Netherlands Q uarterly of Human R ights, Vol. 26/1 (2008) 125
II COUnCIl Of eUROPe
L Z and Y H
1. MEMBER STATES’ DUTY TO COOPERATE WITH THE
EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
e Commit tee of Legal Aairs a nd Human R ights of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe has drawn up an interesting repor t on the Member States’
duty to cooperate w ith the European C ourt of Human Rights .1 From the rep ort it
becomes clear that especially the Russian Federation creates the biggest problems i n
this respec t. ese duties are t he following: Under article 34 ECHR all States parties
to the European Convention on Human Rig hts have undertaken not to hinder in any
way the eective exercise of t he right of individual applications. Under Rule 39 of the
Rules of the Court, the C ourt may ‘indicate to the parties any interi m measure which
it considers should be adopted in the i nterest of the part ies or of the proper conduct
of the proceedings before it.’ In consideri ng requests for interim measures, the Cour t
has applied a threefold test : (1) there must be a threat of ir reparable damage of a very
serious nature; (2) the damage must be i mminent and irreparable; and (3) there must
admissible, it undertakes an investigation ‘for the eective conduct of which t he
states concerned shall furnish all neces sary facil ities’. In a nu mber of its decisions,
the Court has held that Ar ticle 38 bestows upon the States parties the duty to disclose
and produce witne sses, and the duty to produce evidence. e Europea n Agreement
Relating to Persons Part icipating in Proceedings of the European Court of Human
Rights (Eu ropean Agreement) places spec ic obligations on States parties regardi ng
correspondence bet ween applicants and the Court, and travel arrangements. Under
Article 3 of that Agreement, the parties must respect the rights of applicants and their
representatives to correspond f reely with the Cour t. e correspondence of detained
persons must be dispatched w ithout undue delay, and no adverse consequences must
follow from the applicant’s petition to the Court. In addition, Article 4 of the European
Agreement requires the Contrac ting Parties to allow free movement and tr avel of the
1 See Parliamentary A ssembly Doc. 11183, 9 February 2007 a nd the Addendum of 1 October 20 07.
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