Education and awareness raising
© Daria Shevtsova/Pexels
Introduction
Awareness-raising concerning the Convention and the Court’s case law are essential activities that can help fill the implementation gap. NHRIs are well-placed to promote better understanding of Convention requirements and the nature and extent of the gap in the protection of human rights identified by the ECtHR in its judgments.
NHRIs organise trainings on Convention standards, education events raising awareness of the breach of human rights identified by the ECtHR in its judgments, they hold conferences to promote ECtHR case law and use annual reports, the media, social media reporting, or a dedicated space on the NHRI website to highlight the overall implementation record of the government or raise awareness of a ECtHR judgment.
Good practices
The Croatian Ombudswoman – Annual reports of the Ombudswoman of Croatia
The Annual Reports of the Croatian Ombudswoman (see, e.g. the 2018 Annual Report of the Croatian Ombudswoman) are an incredibly important advocacy tool for the Ombudswoman. In these reports, extensive references are made to recent judgements of the European Court of Human Rights against the Republic of Croatia, ECtHR practice as well as to Convention standards. The Annual Reports details the level of respect for rights of Croatian citizens, also in light of Convention standards and ECtHR case law. The Ombudswoman similarly reports on legislation or practices that fail to take account of ECtHR case law and makes recommendations to State authorities on how to achieve compliance in this respect.
The Public Defender of Georgia – Informing the public of their Rule 9(2) Communications to the Committee of Ministers
The Public Defender of Georgia has devoted a webpage to its written submissions to international organisations. This includes submissions made to the Committee of Ministers. By doing so, the Public Defender informs the public of this particular international procedure, and of the opinions of the Defender with respect to the action taken by the State authorities to implement judgments.
The Greek National Commission for Human Rights – Informing the public of European Court of Human Rights judgments through their website
The Greek National Commission for Human Rights (GNCHR) has a dedicated a part of its website to the work of the European Court of Human Rights. It notes that, together with the European Court of Human Rights, the GNCHR translates ECtHR factsheets into Greek. It further provides a list of all ECtHR judgments that have been rendered against Greece and provides a useful note in which it reports on those judgments delivered against Greece in which use is made of the work of the GNCHR. This illustrates that, in the merits, both applicants and the European Court of Human Rights itself invoke reports issued by the GNCHR and that the European Court of Human Rights appears to be interested in the GNCHR’s assessment of the respect of human rights in Greece, but also in its recommendations on the national legislation.
The Human Rights Ombudsman of Slovenia – Annual report of the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia
In 2017 Annual Report of the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia the Ombudsman reports on ‘the level of observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms … in the Republic of Slovenia’. In doing so, the Ombudsman notes the amount of cases rendered by the European Court of Human Rights in 2017. Provides critiques where deemed necessary, but also considers, where appropriate, that ‘the state has made significant progress in enforcing ECtHR judgements’.
Roadmap on education and awareness raising
Image source: ENNHRI Guidance for National Human Rights Institutions to support implementation of Judgments from the European Court of Human Rights.
Key resources
The EIN country page provides a map that shows the implementation record of leading judgments from the ECtHR across Europe. For more information on each country, click on the map to see individual country pages.
