2008 Annual Report of the European Court of Human Rights

The provisional edition of the 2008 annual report of the European Court of Human Rights was recently published.

The Court is an institution under the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (AKA European Convention of Human Rights) that was drawn up by the Council of Europe. The Court sits in Strasbourg, France.

The report contains sections on the history and development of the institution, its composition and activities, and a survey of the main judgments and decisions in the last year.

It also contains a statistical section:

• The Court delivered 1,543 judgments in 2008, up 3% in comparison to 2007
• 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).
• some 50,000 new applications were received (up 20% over the previous year)
• 57% of applications had been lodged against just four States (the Russian Federation, Turkey, Romania and Ukraine).

The Council of Europe is one of the continent's oldest political organizations, founded in 1949. It groups together 47 countries, and it has granted observer status to five other countries (the Holy See, United States, Canada, Japan and Mexico). Note: The Council of Europe is distinct from the European Union, but no country has ever joined the Union without first belonging to the Council of Europe.