Европейский контрольный механизм защиты прав человека и универсальные конвенционные органы

Abstract

Protection of human rights is one of the main objectives not only of states but also of the international community as a whole. International and regional organizations have done much to embody human rights and freedoms in international agreements and conventions and to develop monitoring mechanisms of their observance. The article reviews the control bodies established by universal international agreements on human rights, including the Commission on Human Rights, Commission against Torture, their authority, efficiency and drawbacks in their activities. The article also studies the European monitoring mechanism. The author attempts to prove that only a judicial body authorized to consider individual complaints and state complaints and entitled to binding final decisions may become a valid mechanism of protection of human rights. The author believes that the monitoring mechanism created on the basis of the 1950 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is the most efficient system in the sphere of protection of human rights, compared with other procedures in the given sphere provided by universal international agreements. The binding nature of the decisions passed is the necessary aspect of any monitoring mechanism in the human rights sphere, still inaccessible to any of the existing mechanisms. It gives the European procedure the necessary features of a true International Judicial Body. Large practical experience of consideration of claims b y the European Court o n Human Rights proves its efficiency. There are no attempts to duplicate the work of the European Court and the Committee against Torture founded by the 1987 European Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The Commission against Torture is a non-judicial mechanism of preventive nature contributing to the collaboration of member-states of the Council of Europe in the sphere of protection of human rights. The jurisprudence of the European Court on Human Rights influenced positively the legal and socio-political systems of the Council of Europe member-states.