THE
EUROPEAN
COURT
OF HUMAN
RIGHTS
IN FACTS
& FIGURES
2016
This document has been prepared by the Public Relations Unit of the Court, and
does not bind the Court.It is intended to provide basic general information about
the way the Court works.
For more detailed information, please refer to documents issued by the Registry
available on the Court’s website: www.echr.coe.int
© European Court of Human Rights, March 2017
Facts & Figures - 2016
3
Pending allocated cases
Approximately 79,750 applications were pending before a judicial formation on
31 December 2016. Almost half of these applications had been lodged against one
of the following 3 member States of the Council of Europe: Ukraine, Turkey or
Hungary.
on 31 December 2016
Armenia
2.0%
Azerbaijan
2.1%
Poland
2.3%
Georgia
2.6%
Italy
7.8%
Romania
9.3%
Russia
9.8%
Hungary
11.2%Other States
14.4%
Turkey
15.8%
Ukraine
22.8%
European Court of Human Rights
4
Judgments by State in 2016
In 2016, almost half the judgments concerned 4 of the 47 member States, namely
the Russian Federation (228),Turkey (88), Romania (86) and Ukraine (73). Nearly
a quarter of all the judgments delivered by the Court concerned the Russian
Federation.
Of the total number of judgments delivered in 2016, the Court has found at least
one violation of the Convention by the respondent State in 83% of the cases.
Since the Court was established in 1959, more than a quarter of the judgments
delivered by it have concerned 2 member States:Turkey (3,270) and Italy (2,351).
Poland
2.61%
Croatia
3.42%
Bulgaria
3.72%
Hungary
4.12%
Greece
4.53%
Ukraine
7.35%
Romania
8.66%
Turkey
8.86%Russian Federation
22.96%
Other States
33.77%
Facts & Figures - 2016
5
Applications allocated to a judicial formation
Applications which are allocated to a judicial formation are those for which the
Court has received a correctly completed form, accompanied by copies of relevant
documents.
These applications will be examined by a single judge, a Committee or a Chamber
of the Court.These figures do not include applications which are at the pre-judicial
stage (incomplete case file).
on 31 December 2016
8,400
10,500
13,800
28,200
27,200
32,500
35,400
39,200
41,600
49,700
57,000
61,100
64,300
64,900
65,800
56,300
40,650
53,500
0
10 000
20 000
30 000
40 000
50 000
60 000
70 000
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
European Court of Human Rights
6
Judgments delivered by the Court
In recent years the Court has concentrated on examining complex cases, and has
decided to join certain applications which raise similar legal questions so that it can
consider them jointly.Thus, although the number of judgments delivered each year
is not increasing as rapidly as in the past,the Court has examined more applications.
In 2016 the Court delivered 993 judgments concerning 1,926 applications. A total
of 38,505 applications were decided in 2016, through a judgment or decision, or by
being struck out of the list.
837
177
695
888
844
703 718
1,105
1,560
1,503
1,543
1,625
1,499
1,157
1,093
916
891
823
993
0
200
400
600
800
1 000
1 200
1 400
1 600
1 800
Facts & Figures - 2016
7
Subject-matter of the Court’s violation judgments in 2016
In the judgments delivered by the Court in 2015, nearly a quarter of the violations
concerned Article 6 (right to a fair hearing), whether on account of the fairness or
the length of the proceedings.
Furthermore, nearly 20% of the violations found by the Court concerned the
prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment (Article 3). In addition,
more than 20% of the violations found concerned the right to liberty and security
(Article 5).
It should be noted that 25% of the findings of a violation concerned a serious breach
of the Convention,namely the right to life or the prohibition of torture and inhuman
or degrading treatment (Articles 2 and 3).
Right to life (Art. 2)
5.63%
Protection of
property
(P1-1)
7.56% Right to an effective
remedy (Art. 13)
9.62%
Other violations
14.02%
Right to liberty and
security (Art. 5)
20.39%
Prohibition of torture
and inhuman or
degrading treatment
(Art. 3)
19.82%
Right to a fair trial
(Art. 6)
22.96%
European Court of Human Rights
8
Throughput of applications in 2016
A
pplications
allocated
to
a
judicial
form
ation
A
pplications
declared
inadm
issible
or
struck
out
A
pplications
in
w
hich
judgm
ent
w
as
delivered
Totalnum
ber
of
applications
decided
2016 2016 2016 2016
Albania 147 44 22 66
Andorra 4 4 2 6
Armenia 753 133 16 149
Austria 236 239 11 250
Azerbaijan 333 136 50 186
Belgium 184 158 11 169
Bosnia and Herzegovina 882 596 2 598
Bulgaria 1,033 907 42 949
Croatia 764 639 39 678
Cyprus 34 34 4 38
Czech Republic 338 339 7 346
Denmark 47 51 3 54
Estonia 206 210 5 215
Finland 196 157 1 158
France 916 874 27 901
Georgia 74 148 4 152
Germany 676 658 19 677
Greece 337 455 65 520
Hungary 5,569 1,125 100 1,225
Iceland 24 15 0 15
Ireland 27 19 0 19
Italy 1,409 2,695 35 2,730
Latvia 258 228 17 245
Liechtenstein 10 14 1 15
Lithuania 406 453 22 475
Luxembourg 38 22 0 22
Malta 26 14 10 24
Republic of Moldova 839 750 27 777
Monaco 6 5 0 5
Montenegro 165 220 4 224
Netherlands 494 500 11 511
Norway 90 87 3 90
Poland 2,424 2,246 29 2,275
Portugal 155 269 33 302
Romania 8,204 4,089 258 4,347
Russian Federation 5,591 6,365 645 7,010
San Marino 13 5 0 5
Serbia 1,336 1,220 66 1,286
Slovak Republic 309 318 10 328
Slovenia 239 299 4 303
Spain 626 557 18 575
Sweden 138 141 4 145
Switzerland 258 230 10 240
'The former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia'
340 321 16 337
Turkey 8,308 4,042 118 4,160
Ukraine 8,658 4,188 116 4,304
United Kingdom 373 360 39 399
TOTAL 53,493 36,579 1,926 38,505
Facts&Figures-2016
9
Simplifiedflowchartofcase-processingbytheCourt
Relinquishment
Referral
Referral
SINGLE JUDGE
1 judge
Judgment on
the merits
Judgment
COMMITTEE
3 judges
CHAMBER
7 judges
Inadmissibility
decision
Admissibility
decision
COMMITTEE OF
MINISTERS
Judgment on the
admissibility
and the merits
Judgment on the
admissibility
and the merits
Inadmissibility
decision
GRAND CHAMBER
17 judges
Inadmissibility
decision
INDIVIDUAL APPLICATION
Simplified case-processing flow chart by judicial formation
EuropeanCourtofHumanRights
10
ViolationsbyArticleandbyState1
2016
Totalnum
berofjudgm
ents
Judgm
entsfinding
atleastoneviolation
Judgm
entsfinding
no
violation
Friendly
settlem
ents/Striking-out
judgm
ents
Otherjudgm
ents²
Righttolife–deprivationoflife
Lackofeffectiveinvestigation
Prohibitionoftorture
Inhumanordegradingtreatment
Lackofeffectiveinvestigation
Conditionalviolations
3
Prohibitionofslavery/forcedlabour
Righttolibertyandsecurity
Righttoafairtrial4
Lengthofproceedings
Non-enforcement
Nopunishmentwithoutlaw
Righttorespectforprivateandfamilylife
4
Freedom
ofthought,conscienceandreligion
Freedom
ofexpression
Freedom
ofassemblyandassociation
Righttomarry
Righttoaneffectiveremedy
Prohibitionofdiscrimination
Protectionofproperty
Righttoeducation
Righttofreeelections
Rightnottobetriedorpunishedtwice
OtherArticlesoftheConvention
Total Total Total Total Total 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 5 6 6 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 P1-1 P1-2 P1-3 P1-4
Albania 10 10 1 9 7 6
Andorra 2 1 1 1 1
Armenia 15 13 2 1 1 1 4 10 4
Austria 10 6 4 1 4 1
Azerbaijan 16 16 1 4 3 10 6 1 5 1 4 8
Belgium 11 5 5 1 1 2 2 2 1 1
Bosnia and Herzegovina 2 2 1 3
Bulgaria 37 33 2 2 6 2 6 9 1 9 4 7 14 1
Croatia 34 25 8 1 1 1 6 3 1 1 1 1 2 10
Cyprus 3 2 1 1 1 2
Czech Republic 5 2 3 3 1
Denmark 3 1 2 1
Estonia 5 3 2 1 2 1
Finland 1 1 1
France 23 14 8 1 1 5 2 7 3 3 2
Georgia 4 4 3 1 1 1
Germany 18 4 13 1 1 2 1
Greece 45 41 4 17 1 1 1 7 2 16 1 3 1 21 1 1
Hungary 41 40 1 7 4 3 16 3 6 1 6 7
Iceland 0
Ireland 0
Italy 15 10 3 2 1 2 2 6 2 1 5 8 1 1
Latvia 16 9 7 1 2 4 1 1 1 1
Liechtenstein 1 1 1 1 1
Facts&Figures-2016
11
ViolationsbyArticleandbyState1
2016
Totalnum
berofjudgm
ents
Judgm
entsfinding
atleastone
violation
Judgm
entsfinding
no
violation
Friendly
settlem
ents/Striking-out
judgm
ents
Otherjudgm
ents²
Righttolife–deprivationoflife
Lackofeffectiveinvestigation
Prohibitionoftorture
Inhumanordegradingtreatment
Lackofeffectiveinvestigation
Conditionalviolations
3
Prohibitionofslavery/forcedlabour
Righttolibertyandsecurity
Righttoafairtrial4
Lengthofproceedings
Non-enforcement
Nopunishmentwithoutlaw
Righttorespectforprivateandfamilylife
4
Freedom
ofthought,conscienceandreligion
Freedom
ofexpression
Freedom
ofassemblyandassociation
Righttomarry
Righttoaneffectiveremedy
Prohibitionofdiscrimination
Protectionofproperty
Righttoeducation
Righttofreeelections
Rightnottobetriedorpunishedtwice
OtherArticlesoftheConvention
Total Total Total Total Total 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 5 6 6 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 P1-1 P1-2 P1-3 P1-4
Lithuania 22 13 6 3 1 2 3 1 4 1 2 1 2
Luxembourg 0
Malta 8 7 1 2 6 2 1 2
Republic of Moldova 23 19 2 2 10 4 4 6 1 3 2
Monaco 0
Montenegro 2 2 1 2
Netherlands 11 3 8 1 2 1
Norway 2 2
Poland 26 19 7 11 1 1 3 3 1
Portugal 19 17 2 7 8 1 4 3 5
Romania 86 71 6 4 5 1 5 28 12 7 16 8 1 7 1 1 2 2
Russian Federation 228 222 5 1 11 13 64 13 3 153 41 15 13 12 1 4 5 50 1 32 1 15
San Marino 0
Serbia 21 19 2 1 3 4 9 1 1 8 1 1
Slovak Republic 10 9 1 1 1 4 1 4
Slovenia 4 2 1 1 2
Spain 16 12 3 1 1 4 3 1 2 1
Sweden 5 4 1 3 1 1
Switzerland 10 5 5 1 1 2 1
"The former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia"
12 8 4 1 5 1 1 1
Turkey 88 77 6 5 8 18 9 10 22 11 4 6 2 7 5 3 4 6 1
Ukraine 73 70 3 2 12 2 21 14 27 15 13 3 7 1 1 15 2 1 6
United Kingdom 14 7 6 1 3 2 1 1 1
Sub-total 829 134 14 20 24 55 2 194 71 11 1 286 176 106 40 2 74 4 37 17 1 135 13 106 0 9 3 35
TOTAL 993*
1. This table has been generated automatically, using the conclusions recorded in the metadata for each judgment contained in HUDOC, the Court’s case-law database.
2. Other judgments: just satisfaction, revision, preliminary objections and lack of jurisdiction.
3. Cases in which the Court held there would be a violation of Article 3 if the applicant was removed to a State where he/she was at risk of ill-treatment.
4. Figures in this column may include conditional violations.
* Four judgments are against more than one State: Lithuania and Sweden; Republic of Moldova and Russian Federation (2 judgments); and Romania and Bulgaria.
March 2017
European Court of Human Rights
Public Relations Unit
F-67075 Strasbourg cedex
w w w . e c h r . c o e . i n t