This story deserves your attention
First very closely because it affects you and others more than eight hundred million people, but even more, as it concerns all those who for various reasons, even for a few hours they are in transit through the territory of one of the 47 states that are members of the Council of Europe. (Italy is one of them)
According because it concerns the system of protection of fundamental rights of all those people, including you. It is a system that is based on a document, the European Convention on Human Rights, unique, and we should all know by heart. It is a system One, because thanks to the European Court of Human Rights, also known as the Strasbourg Court (the now infamous in Italy especially for the sentence of crucifixes in classrooms) guarantees to citizens, but not limited to the 47 countries mentioned above two great opportunities, which are not guaranteed to anyone else in the world. Namely to bring to justice their own state if they feel that this has broken one of their rights under the Convention, and thereafter if the Court finds that there has been a violation, the opportunity to require the State to remedy the damage Indeed, both through compensation (which is sometimes a small thing) is by requiring them to change the law or introduce a so as to prevent the recurrence of the violation. Thanks to the Court in other words countries must introduce changes to ensure that their citizens rights first denied or violated. The third
why this story should be of interest is that this system is in crisis and in some ways it is already jammed. The Strasbourg Court can no longer issue rulings, even for cases involving serious violations of human rights, quickly enough. Among the rights protected by the Convention are the right to life and one which states that no one may be tortured or mistreated. Then we have the right to freedom of expression, religion and association. That fair process, which also includes that a process that lasts a reasonable time. The Convention also protects the right to private property and the right to privacy. And these are just some of the rights guaranteed.
fourth and penultimate why this story should arouse your interest. If this system is falling apart much of the blame for some of the Member States of the Council of Europe, including Italy. These countries in fact do not change with "enough" speed their laws and then flooded the system with cases in which the Court has already determined there be a violation. For Italy, these cases are made in the vast majority of complaints brought by citizens who have undergone a process too long. The file is open on this issue since the mid-90s and is being enriched every year of new cases, there are currently more than 2 thousand. But that's not all. The other problem is that states are not doing enough on two other fronts. One is to let everyone know about the text of the Convention. If the public knew about the Convention and the criteria that determine whether an action may or may not be accepted by the Court, it will not find themselves having to spend most of his energies to study these files that will not lead anywhere. Each year, the Court declared ineligible for 90% of the appeals it receives. The other front on which the Member are fugitives and the introduction of systems that allow citizens to appeal to the authorities of the State instead of having to go to Strasbourg.
fifth and final plea. Italy February 19 last year, along with 46 other members of the Council of Europe signed a declaration recognizes its responsibility for the situation in terms of the Court and then the system of protection of human rights in Europe and is committed to do whatever it takes to remedy the situation. In essence, he made a commitment to implement all necessary measures at national level, including to ensure that all legislation passed and to be launched are in line with the Convention but also to reform the system so that it becomes more efficient and fast. For now, the commitment is only on paper and then nobody knows if it will be maintained.
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