European Court of Human Rights 2011 Annual Report

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) based in Strasbourg has released its annual report for 2011. There are also some interesting statistical tables that come with the document.

Among the highlights:

• In 2011, more than a third of the judgments delivered by the Court concerned four of the Council of Europe’s forty-seven member States: Turkey (174), Russia (133), Ukraine (105) and Greece (73). In 2011, the Court delivered 1,157 judgments
  
• Since the reform of the Convention system on 1 November 1998, there has been a considerable increase in the Court’s caseload. Barely ten years after the reform, the Court delivered its 10,000th judgment. Its output is such that more than 91% of the Court’s judgments since its creation in 1959 have been delivered between 1998 and 2011
• More than a third of the judgments in which the Court found a violation included a violation of Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights, whether on account of the fairness or the length of the proceedings. 15% of violations found by the Court concern Article 3 (Prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment). Lastly, more than 23% of violations found by the Court concern the right to life or the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment (Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention)

The ECHR hears complaints from individuals living in any of the member states of the Council of Europe about violations of the European Convention of Human Rights. The Council of Europe is one of the continent's oldest political organizations, founded in 1949. It has 47 member countries.