Russia lifts opposition to EU court reform

Russia has lifted its opposition to a long-delayed reform of the European Court of Human Rights in a major gesture towards the West.

On Friday, the Russian Parliament's Lower House, State Duma, overwhelmingly ratified Protocol 14 of the European Human Rights Convention, which will allow the European court to process submitted cases more efficiently and help eliminate a massive backlog of cases in the court.

Russian legislators said they endorsed the Protocol after the Council of Europe agreed to address their complaints, including a demand that Russian judges be involved in reviewing complaints against Russia.

Friday's vote is also a sign of warming relations between Russia and Europe, which had suffered a blow after the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia.

The vote came a week after President Dmitry Medvedev asked the Russian Parliament to take a fresh look at ratifying the Protocol. Russia was the only country in the 47-member Council of Europe that had refused to endorse the reform of the Strasbourg Court for the past three years.

The ratification of the protocol is in line with Medvedev's efforts to improve the Russian legal system. The Strasbourg court has grown increasingly popular with Russians as their last hope for justice.

Russian applications account for almost a third of more than 120,000 cases pending in the court. It has passed hundreds of rulings against the Russian government, finding officials guilty of corruption, torture and other misconduct.

By signing on to the European court, Russia hopes to get milder treatment from the human rights body in the prosecution of thousands of cases against it.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116280§ionid=351020602.