The Republic of Moldova in 2019 ranked fifth among the countries against which the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) passed the largest number of decisions. As a result of these, the state was obliged to pay over half a million euros to plaintiffs, said experts of the Legal Resources Center of Moldova who analyzed the Court’s report for last year.
In a news conference at IPN, the Center’s head Vladislav Gribincea said the largest damages were paid in the case of expulsion of Turkish teachers - €125,000, by €25,000 for each plaintiff - and in a case concerning real estate, where the court ordered to pay damages of over €140,000.
In 2019, the number of Moldovans who went to the ECHR was 3.4 higher than the European average. Even so, the number of applications was by 22% lower than in 2018. The fact that fewer Moldovans go to the ECHR at first sight implies that confidence in justice increased. But polls do not confirm this, stated Vladislav Gribincea.
He noted that the decline in the number of applications is typical for all the Council of Europe member states and is not due to the improvement of the situation concerning the observance of human rights, but rather to the decreasing popularity of the ECHR after this, during many years, adopted over 350,000 practically unjustified decisions to reject applications.
In 2019, the ECHR passed 54 judgments against Moldova. This is a large figure, said Vladislav Gribincea, as the ECHR during the last ten years adopted not more than 33 decisions in Moldovan cases. “This does not mean that more violations were committed. In fact, the ECHR focused on the examination of applications with chances of success, not on the rejection of those without chances of success,” he explained.
In these decisions, the ECHR ascertained violations of the European Convention. 50% of these referred to the right to a fair trial and a part of them referred to the annulment of the effect of irrevocable court decisions. In 26% of the cases, the decisions concerned human rights violations in the Transnistrian region.
As to the expulsion of Turkish teachers, Vladislav Gribincea said harsh penalties should be imposed on those involved following such decisions. Another decision refers to Mătăsaru, who is known for his extravagant protests. One of these protests ended with his arrest for aggravated hooliganism for which he was given a suspended sentence. The ECHR held that this is inadmissible and nondemocratic.
At the end of 2019, over 1,000 applications were pending at the ECHR. According to Vladislav Gribincea, 95% of these are applications with big chances of success for the plaintiffs.
During 22 years, the ECHR identified about 600 violations in Moldova. These refer to the right to a fair trial, freedom from torture and the right to liberty and security. More than €17 million was paid by Moldova to plaintiffs under ECHR decisions since 1997 until 2019.
