ECHR STATISTICS FOR 2020

The European Court of Human Rights announced on 28 January 2021 the statistics regarding the proceedings before it, which are extremely interesting and impressive.

Which country is the champion of violations? Which are the countries with the most convictions and which with the fewest? 0which country applied the most? How many applications are pending before the Court?  How many applications per 10,000 inhabitants in the 47 Council of Europe countries? The answers can be seen below.

ECtHR DECISIONS IN TOTAL

The Court in 2020 issued 871 decisions, of which 762 convictions and 84 acquittals, ie the convictions consists 87.4% of all decisions issued during the year. In 2019 it had issued 884 decisions and in total in all its years of operation (1959-2020) it has issued 23,406 decisions, of which 19,739 (84.3%) the applicants were convicted and 1893 were acquitted.

Of these, in 2020 most of the convictions concern violations of the right to personal liberty and security (Article 5 of the ECHR) with 208 decisions, followed by the violations of a fair trial of Article 6 (190), those concerning the inhuman or degrading treatment of Article 3 (123) , the right to property (122), the private and family life of Article 8 (93) and the freedom of expression of Article 10 of the ECHR (80).

WHAT ARE THE COUNTRIES WITH THE MORE CONVICTIONS FOR 2020?

Undoubtedly  Russia is first with 173 convictions, second comes Turkey with 85, third Ukraine with 82, fourth Romania with 64, fifth Azerbaijan with 37. Greece is in the 9th place with 18 convictions.

The countries where convictions make up 100% of the convictions are Azerbaijan, where all judgmenyts (37) are convictions, Albania (3), Armenia (14), Belgium (9), Bosnia and Herzegovina (8), Cyprus (2). Those who have only 1 decision are omitted here.

Greece has 18 convictions for 25 decisions, ie 72% and 5 acquittals.

COUNTRIES THAT FILLED THE MORE INDIVIDUAL APPLICATIONS

Russia (13645) filed the most applications in 2020 with 22.4% of the total appeals, followed by Turkey (11750) with 18.1%, Ukraine (10408), Romania (7561), Italy (3469) . Of these countries, Russia shows that in 2019 it had submitted 15071 applications and Romania (in 2019 7883). The rest show an increase from 2019 and especially Turkey (9257), Ukraine (8833), Italy (3071).

Montenegro (3.50), Serbia (2.65), Bosnia and Herzegovina (2.49), Liechtenstein (2.31) and Latvia (2.17) have filed the most individual applicationsper 10,000 inhabitants. Greece has filled  1035 applications  (this is the first time it exceeds 1000) in 2020 compared to 725 in 2019 (an increase of almost 43%!). Regarding the applications that have been filed, Greece is in 11th place from 12th in 2019.

The applicants from Greece are 0.61 per 10,000 inhabitants in 2020 and Greece is in 25th place. It is noteworthy, however, that this percentage since 2019 has increased significantly and almost doubled (from 0.32 to 0.61!). In 2019 our country was in 29th place.

NUMBER OF CONDEMNS PER VIOLATION 

A) The right with the most violations is the right to personal liberty and security (Article 5 of the ECHR) which mainly concerns temporary detainees with 208 violations (23.8% of the total convictions). The champion is Russia with 82 violations, followed by Ukraine (49), third Azerbaijan (17) and fourth Turkey (16).

Greece has no violation in this regard.

B) The right to a fair trial (Article 6 of the ECHR) comes second in violations with 190 convictions. First in violations again Russia (54) with second Turkey (31) and third Azerbaijan (18).

Greece has 3 violations.

C) The offense of inhuman and degrading treatment is third in violations (Article 3) with 129 convictions. Russia has committed the most violations (41) with 31.8% !, followed by Ukraine with 29 decisions.

Greece has 2 convictions.

D) The Right to Property (Article 1 of the First Protocol) is the fourth in violations with 122 decisions. And here first in violations is Russia with 16 decisions, followed by Moldova with 15, Turkey with 14.

Greece has been sentenced by 5 decisions and is 8th in the ranking.

E) The right to respect for private and family life is the fifth in violations with 93 convictions. And for this offense Russia is the first in violations (24) that is, it has the ¼ of violations! Romania and Azerbaijan follow with 10 convictions.

Greece has no violations in 2020.

F) The right to freedom of expression is sixth in the ranking of violations with 80 decisions. Here, Turkey is first in violations with a difference of 31 decisions (38.7% !!), followed by Russia with 23 and Azerbaijan with 5.

Greece has no violations in 2020.

COUNTRIES WITH LESS INFRINGEMENTS AND LESS APPLICATIONS

The countries that have no violations are Andorra, Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands and Sweden.

The countries with the fewest violations are the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland and San Marino.

The countries with the fewest applications per 10,000 inhabitants in 2020 are: a) The United Kingdom with 0.04 applications per 10,000 citizens, b) Germany with 0.07 c) Ireland with 0.08 applications and Spain with 0 , 09.

THE STATISTICS FOR GREECE

Apart from the above mentioned for 2020 for our country all the years of operation of the ECtHR:

a) 1047 decisions have been issued on a total number of 23,406, ie it has a percentage of 4.47 on the total number of decisions.

b) Greece has been sentenced to 935 decisions (89.3% conviction rate!) and has been acquitted in 44 decisions.

c) Has been sentenced to 542 decisions for delays in the administration of justice (58% of convictions against Greece!) and for this violation is the third in Europe behind Italy and Turkey

d) Has been convicted in 277 decisions for non-existence of legal remedies of article 13 of the ECHR (29.6% of convictions!),

e) Has been convicted of 141 offenses for breach of a fair trial (15% of convictions);

f) Has been convicted in 121 convictions for inhuman or degrading treatment (12.9% of convictions);

g) Has been convicted in 84 decisions for violations of the right to property (9% of convictions).

h) Has been sentenced to 15 decisions for violation of freedom of expression and to 13 for violations of private and family life.

Greece finally sadly is the country with the most convictions of all Council of Europe states for violation of the right to religious freedom (Article 9) with 14 convictions out of a total of 88, ie it has a percentage of almost 16% of all convictions for Religious Freedom.

(Source https://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=reports&c=)