European Court to adopt 40 rulings on Azerbaijan in 2023
European Court of Justice on Azerbaijan
In 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) adopted 40 judgments in the cases of applicants from Azerbaijan. In 38 of these judgments at least one violation was found. This was stated by ECtHR President Siofra O’Leary at an annual press conference in Strasbourg.
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It is reported that the largest number of rulings on Azerbaijan recognized a violation of the right to a fair trial. This was reflected in 10 decisions.
In 8 rulings the ECtHR recognized the violation of the right to liberty and security of person, respect for private life, 6 – freedom of association, 5 – right to property, 4 – right not to be subjected to torture and inhuman treatment, 3 – freedom of expression, 3 – right to life, 1 – right to effective legal remedies.
In total, the ECtHR issued 1014 judgments on the merits in 2023.
Russia and Turkey at the top
The largest number of judgments was against Russia – 217. These decisions recognized the greatest number of violations of freedom and integrity (168 decisions), the right not to be tortured (156) and the right to a fair trial (138).
Russia is followed by Turkey with 78 decisions. The judgments on Turkey also recorded the highest number of violations of liberty and security of person (16 judgments) and fair trial rights (17).
In 2023, the ECtHR announced 25 judgments against Armenia and 17 against Georgia. With regard to Armenia, the greatest violation of the right to life was recognized (11 decisions), and with regard to Georgia – violation of the rights not to be subjected to torture and ill-treatment, discrimination (4 decisions).
Applications removed from the list
The examination of 111 applications sent from Azerbaijan in 2023 was suspended pursuant to a unilateral declaration by the Government. In these cases, the Government acknowledged the violations alleged by the applicants. The examination of 55 applications sent from Azerbaijan was closed in 2022 and 4 applications sent from Azerbaijan in 2021 on the basis of a unilateral declaration by the Government.
The examination of 154 applications sent from Azerbaijan in 2023 ended with amicable agreements between the parties and the applications were removed from the list of cases to be examined. The figure was 67 in 2021 and 64 in 2022.
New applications
New ApplicationsIn 2023, there was a decrease in the number of new applications. In 2022, 45.5 thousand new applications were processed and in 2023 this figure decreased to 34.650. 438 of these applications relate to Azerbaijan. In 2021 this figure was 425 and in 2023 it was 389.
In 2023, the most applications are from Turkey with 8,341, 2531 from Ukraine, 2821 from Romania, 2469 from Hungary were processed.
The court considered 147 applications from Armenia and 156 from Georgia.
Applications pending
The number of applications pending before the ECtHR has decreased, with 74,650 applications pending in 2022 and a decrease to 68,450 in 2023.
Turkey is the leader in the number of applications pending before the ECtHR. At the moment, out of 68,450 applications, 23,397 of them are against Turkey. This is more than 34 percent of all applications.
12,453 applications from Russia, 8,737 from Ukraine, 4,171 from Romania, 2,743 from Italy and 2,429 from Greece are pending.
Azerbaijan is in 7th place with 1,877 pending applications.
There are 836 pending applications from Armenia and 185 from Georgia.
Most frequently violated rights
In 2023, the ECtHR found the highest number of violations of the rights to a fair trial (372), liberty and security (348), and inadmissibility of torture and ill-treatment (344).