Noting that increasing legal and political challenges have hindered the implementation of ECtHR judgments, the PACE report has said that Greece has still as of yet not implemented the ECtHR judgments regarding the associations of the Turkish community in Western Trace under the name of “Bekir-Ousta and Others” group of cases.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted on 26 October 2021 in its session a resolution and a recommendation regarding the report entitled “The implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)”. The report, which has been written by member of PACE MP Constantinos Efstathiou from the Greek Administration of Southern Cyprus states that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe monitors the implementation of 5,231 ECtHR judgments as of the end of 2019, while many judgments on structural problems have not been implemented by 10 states in particular, including Greece, who have been members of the Council of Europe for more than 10 years.
The report indicates that Greece has not yet implemented three resolutions of the ECtHR to its detriment as regards the Xanthi Turkish Union, the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Rodopi Province and the Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association as regards violations of the freedom of association of the Turkish community in Western Thrace. In addition, the report notes that the Committee of Ministers urged Greek authorities to take immediate steps to implement such judgments.
The resolution adopted regarding the report says that PACE remains deeply concerned about the number of cases revealing structural problems that have been pending before the Committee of Ministers for more than five years and recommends that the Committee of Ministers prioritise cases that have been pending for more than five years. The resolution which also indicates that there are serious structural or complex issues that are unresolved in ten States that are members of the Council including Greece, notes that these problems may be due to deep-rooted problems such as persistent bias against certain groups in society, inadequate governance at the national level, lack of necessary resources or political will, or a clear disagreement with the ECtHR judgment.
With the resolution, PACE invites all States that are parties to the Convention, nearly 70 years after the signing of the European Convention on Human Rights, to reconfirm their basic commitments to the protection and development of human rights and fundamental freedoms and to implement ECtHR judgments in a full, effective and fast-moving way. Accordingly, PACE is calling on States that are parties to the Convention to cooperate with the Ministerial Committee, the ECtHR, the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and other relevant bodies of the Council of Europe and not to adopt laws or other measures that would hinder the implementation of ECtHR judgments.
Please find under the following link the resolution entitled “The implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)”:
https://pace.coe.int/en/files/28996/html
...
