The European Court of Human Rights in a New Reality: Does It Have Sufficient Procedural Infrastructure to Deal with Armed Conflicts?

Abstract

Over the last decades, the European Court of Human Rights had to deal with a large number of individual and interstate cases related to armed conflicts. Despite the fact that its original mandate was not designed for such type of cases, the ECtHR plays a significant role in enforcing the European Convention of Human Rights in armed conflict and, in certain cases, the international humanitarian law. The ECtHR’s increased involvement in armed conflict cases is urged by the lack of special enforcement judicial forum for IHL. Leaving aside the jurisdictional, mandate-related and conceptual legal questions arising from the ECtHR’s involvement in armed conflict, this article aims to demonstrate that the ECtHR is sufficiently equipped with adequate procedural infrastructure to ensure effective response to numerous applications alleging human rights violations occurred during an armed conflict.

Keywords

• ihl
• echr
• ecthr
• human rights law