Interim Measure and its enforcement in the European Court of Human Rights case-law

Abstract

The European Court of Human Rights whose main mission is to consider individual and States petitions in case of the violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its additional protocols, based on the applicant’s request or at its own discretion, tries by indicating interim measures to prevent States actions that might inflict serious and irreparable damage to the applicants. This competence is not specifically enshrined in the Convention, however, it is recognized in article 39 of the rules of the Court. This article, by reviewing the Court’s case-law, investigates to what extent the Court invokes this jurisdiction and whether the interim measures entail enforcement mechanism. The findings of this article show that the Court is using interim measures in an exceptional manner to prevent the violation of articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Furthermore, due to the fact that the enforcement of interim measures is not expressly recognized in the Convention or the rules of the Court, the court by its judgments and with referring to article 34 of the European Convention, endeavors to establish an effective enforcement.

Keywords

• european court of human rights
• interim measures
• european convention of human rights and fundamental freedoms
• case-law
• enforcement