Justice Ministry: Downturn in European Court of Human Rights findings against Bulgaria
The European Court of Human Rights pronounced judgment in 2017 in 65 cases lodged against Bulgaria, finding at least one violation in 31 of the cases, according to a Justice Ministry report adopted by the National Assembly on February 6.
According to the European Court of Human Rights website, the court dealt with 879 applications concerning Bulgaria in 2018, of which 841 were declared inadmissible or struck out.
It delivered 29 judgments (concerning 38 applications), 27 of which found at least one violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, the court said.
Pending applications as of January 1 2019, including applications for which completed application forms had not yet been received by that date, added up to 559, the ECHR said.
The Justice Ministry report to Parliament said that there was a gradual downward trend in cases lodged against Bulgaria in the ECHR and in judgments and decisions against it.
The report that at the end of 2017, the total number of cases pending against Bulgaria was close to 30 per cent less than at the end of 2016.
As of December 31 2017, the vast majority of cases pending in the European Court of Human Rights were against Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. These countries were followed by Italy, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia and Poland.
In 2017, Bulgaria was in 15th place, with 623 pending applications against it.
In the National Assembly debate, opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Kornelia Ninova launched an attack on the government, saying that those in power should themselves pay for the damages awarded against Bulgaria.
Ninova said that she was “making a commitment” that claims would be filed irrespective of which government had been in power.
Deputy Justice Minister Nikolai Prodanov criticised politicising a purely technical document.
Prodanov said that at a joint meeting on November 21 of the committees on legal affairs and on human rights, representatives of the opposition had voted in favour of the report.
“I do not know very clearly what happened between November 21 2018 and February 6 2019. The report is the same, there is nothing new in it, the only thing that has changed is that in the past two months we have advanced in time towards the next elections,” Prodanov said.
(Photo of the European Court of Human Rights: CherryX)
