Transitional Justice Cases Against Lithuania at the European Court of Human Rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Vygantė Milašiūtė
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
European Court

The Transitional Justice Model in Colombia vis-à-vis the Inter-American Human Rights SystemAmidst the Conventionality Control and the National Margin of Appreciation

2021 ◽  
pp. 331-350
Author(s):  
Juana I. Acosta-López ◽  
Cindy Vanessa Espitia Murcia
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Integrated System ◽  
Transitional Process ◽  
European Court ◽  
Margin Of Appreciation ◽  
Lasting Peace ◽  
Justice Model

This chapter assesses the international consequences of the transitional justice model in Colombia. It demonstrates that the Colombian transitional justice model, and particularly the integrated system for truth, justice, reparation, and non-repetition, are likely to successfully withstand the 'conventionality control' by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (ICtHR). The chapter then presents a model to be used by the Inter-American organs when analysing the Colombian transitional justice model. In seeking to accommodate the needs of the transitional process with the demands for justice, the model proposes a harmonizing technique between the notions of 'conventionality control', developed by the Inter-American Court since 2006, and the 'national margin of appreciation' doctrine, developed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). This harmonizing approach would allow States to implement the most adequate mechanisms for the consolidation of a lasting peace scenario.

Transitional Justice in Chechnya: NGO Political Advocacy for Implementing Chechen Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 363-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Freek van der Vet
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Qualitative Interview ◽  
Criminal Prosecution ◽  
Political Advocacy ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
European Court ◽  
Qualitative Interview Study ◽  
The Russian Federation

This article asserts that Russian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) contribute to processes of transitional justice in Chechnya through their litigation in front at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Having delivered more than 200 judgments on atrocities which occurred during the two recent conflicts in Chechnya, the ECtHR has repeatedly ruled that the state should pay financial compensation to the victims. While the Russian Federation has been following through on such payments, human-rights monitors allege that domestic authorities have failed to take active measures to address the atrocities themselves.Through a qualitative interview study with Russian lawyers and NGO representatives, this article seeks to scrutinize how NGOs have been using the ECtHR’s mechanisms and judgments by way of leverage to initiate processes of transitional justice in post-conflict Chechnya. It appears that the ECtHR is not an end-station for human-rights claims and individual grievances but, rather, the start of a series of further claims. NGOs: (a) engage in political advocacy in implementing the judgments; and (b) create leverage for the criminal prosecution of perpetrators.

Restorative Justice and Transitional Justice at the ECHR

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-338
Author(s):  
James A. Sweeney
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Real Potential ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
European Court ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Specific Obligation ◽  
Legal Procedures ◽  
Property Restitution

The entire jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights contains just one reference to ‘restorative justice’, in the 2010 case of Đokić v. Bosnia and Herzegovina. The case concerned housing restitution after the conflict in former Yugoslavia and the reference to restorative justice was a quotation from the UN’s ‘Pinheiro Principles’. In its admissibility decision on 31 May 2011 in the case of Sfountouris and Others v. Germany, the European Court of Human Rights confirmed that the Convention imposes upon Contracting States no specific obligation to redress injustice or damage caused by their predecessor. Likewise, the Convention imposes no duty upon states to restore property which was transferred to them before they ratified the Convention (Kopecky v. Slovakia), or even to establish legal procedures in which restitution of property may be sought (Beshiri v. Albania). Yet restorative justice has real potential in transitional contexts, and means far more than property restitution. This article seeks definitional clarity and tracks the relationship between restorative justice and transitional justice in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, encompassing not only property restitution cases but also cases on successor trials, amnesties, truth and memorialisation, and lustration. The analysis draws upon recent scholarship on the sometimes antagonistic relationship between successor regimes’ transitional justice policies and their human rights obligations.

Trust and solidarity at a time of transformation. The problem of so-called Bug River property claims in the case law of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal and the European Court of Human Rights

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (0) ◽  
pp. 91-115
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Kaleta
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Third Republic ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Second Republic ◽  
Compensatory Mechanisms ◽  
European Court ◽  
Legal Nature ◽  
Constitutional Tribunal

The article deals with the issue of the Zabużanie people’s claims. The Zabużanie people were persons who lost their assets as a result of relocation from the Eastern Borderlands (also known as Kresy) of the Second Republic of Poland caused by a revision of territorial borders after the Second World War. The Author describes the genesis and legal nature of the so-called Republican Accords regulating the principles of assistance for displaced persons and forms of realisation of the Zabużanie people’s claims in the statutory law of the Third Republic of Poland. Then, the author discusses the case law of the Constitution Tribunal and the European Court of Human Rights related to that legislation. He indicates a shift in the case law with reference to the scope of discretion accorded to the legislator in respect of adopting compensatory mechanisms. The author underlines the special role that was played by the principle of trust of citizens towards the state and the law enacted thereby in the Tribunal’s assessment of the adopted legislative solutions. At the same time, the author indicates that the potential of the constitutional idea of solidarity was not fully used when solving the issue of the Zabużanie people’s claims. In the opinion of the author, the idea of solidarity could be an axiological foundation for a policy of transitional justice.

Legal Protection of the Missing and Their Relatives: The Example of Bosnia and Herzegovina

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 773-793 ◽  
Author(s):  
TILMAN BLUMENSTOCK
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Progressive Development ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Missing Persons ◽  
European Court ◽  
Degrading Treatment

More than a decade after the end of the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the issue of missing persons remains a major obstacle to reconciliation. With a focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina, this article looks at the phenomenon of missing persons and reviews the scope of the legal protection available to the victims and their family members, as well as some of the institutional efforts to shed light on their fate. The article describes the progressive development of the jurisprudence of the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina, a court modelled on the procedures of the European Court of Human Rights, which held that Bosnian authorities who are withholding from family members information about missing persons are violating their right not to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment and their right to respect for private and family life. It further illustrates the positive effects on politicians and lawmakers which can emanate from transitional justice.

scholarly journals The European Court of Human Rights, Transitional Justice and Historical Abuse in Consolidated Democracies

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 675-704
Author(s):  
James Gallen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
European Court ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract In recent years, both transitional justice and the role of the European Court of Human Rights in dealing with historical abuses have evolved. Transitional justice has begun to address widespread or systemic human rights abuses outside of the contexts of armed conflict and authoritarian regimes. In three key recent judgments, El-Masri v Macedonia, Janowiec v Russia and O’Keeffe v Ireland, the Court has clarified and expanded its approach to addressing historical human rights violations relevant to transitional justice in significant, if inconsistent, ways. To date, there is no exploration of the relationship between transitional justice, historical abuse outside the contexts of armed conflict or authoritarian rule and the European Convention of Human Rights. This article seeks to address that gap by considering the potential opportunities and obstacles for the use of the Convention to address historical abuse in consolidated democracies as a part of transitional justice.

International Legal Rulings on Lustration Policies in Central and Eastern Europe: Rule of Law in Historical Context

2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (03) ◽  
pp. 713-744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia M. Horne
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
International Labour Organization ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
European Court

The transitional justice literature highlights various trade‐offs involved in the choice and implementation of lustration as a transitional justice measure in Central and Eastern Europe. This article examines how international legal body rulings on lustration laws have interpreted rule‐of‐law versus justice concerns. The European Court of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization have explored possible information problems, due process violations, employment discrimination issues, and bureaucratic loyalty concerns within the context of lustration. Three findings emerge from their legal rulings. First, contrary to popular notions, international legal bodies are not antilustration. The institutions are engaging with questions regarding the fair implementation, not the legality, of lustration laws. Second, the prioritizing of justice concerns during the transition efforts is highlighted as a way to lay a strong democratic foundation. Third, the organizations have emphasized the importance of placing rule of law in historical context, thereby situating post‐Communist societies within other posttotalitarian regime‐building narratives.

scholarly journals Prosecuting War Crimes and Meeting Obligations under the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms at the Same Time – the Case of Croatia

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (74) ◽  
pp. 41-61
Author(s):  
Lara Barberić ◽  
Davorka Čolak ◽  
Jasmina Dolmagić
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Criminal Prosecution ◽  
European Court ◽  
Fundamental Freedoms ◽  
The Future ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The Republic

Abstract This article aims to give an overview of how human rights violations that occurred during the Homeland War in Croatia are redressed by conducting criminal prosecution in the Republic of Croatia. Namely, criminal prosecution as one of the elements of transitional justice is essential not only for establishing the accountability of war crime perpetrators, but also as a warning that such violations shall not be tolerated in the future. Moreover, drawing on the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, this article examines how the efforts made by national prosecution bodies to investigate war crimes are assessed by this court. It concludes with the idea that both prosecution of war crimes and protection of human rights, as guaranteed by The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the European Court of Human Rights, seek to achieve the same goal, i.e. protecting the most basic human rights of the war crimes victims and other individuals.

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