How the execution of judgments works

The High Contracting Parties to the European Convention on Human Rights have committed themselves to secure to everyone within their jurisdiction the rights and freedoms defined in Section I of the Convention and, in this respect, have undertaken to “abide by the final judgments of the Court in any case to which they are parties” (Article 46 paragraph 1, of the European Convention on Human Rights).

In accordance with Article 46 paragraph 2, the Committee of Ministers is responsible for the supervision of the execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.

Once the Court’s final judgment has been transmitted to the Committee of Ministers, the latter invites the respondent State to inform it of the steps taken to pay any just satisfaction (compensation and/or costs and expenses) awarded as well as of any individual or general measures which may be necessary in order to comply with the State’s legal obligation to abide by the judgment. In the performance of this task the Committee is assisted, in addition to its own secretariat, by a special department of the Council of Europe’s Secretariat – the Department for the Execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.

Website of the Committee of Ministers

(access to all public documents of the Committee of Ministers concerning the execution of judgments)

Website of the Department for the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights

(news, presentation of the mechanism of supervision of execution of judgments, reports and statistics, etc)