The Effectiveness of the Enforcement Mechanism of the ECHR: A Critical Overview

Effective enforcement of judgments is vital for the functioning of the European Convention of Human Rights. Respondent states enforce the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, and the Committee of Ministers supervises their compliance. Though a perfect enforcement mechanism that ensures compliance with all judgments may never be achieved, the current mechanism may be made considerably more effective with realistic solutions to some of its existing deficiencies. The key issues to be addressed in this context include the excessive interference of political concerns in the supervision process, the exceptional nature of actionability in cases of non-compliance, the lack of legal foreseeability in initiating infringement procedures and applying potential sanctions, and the insufficiency of measures to prevent the recurrence of a violation. The recommended solutions to the identified problems focus on strengthening the independence and effective participation of non-majoritarian institutions assisting with the supervision of compliance with judgments, normalizing and standardizing the supervision process, and introducing procedural guarantees to deter respondent states from repeating a violation.