THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

IN FACTS& FIGURES

2018

Facts & Figures 2018

3

Pending allocated cases

Approximately 56,350 applications were pending before a judicial formation at 31 December 2018. More than a third of these applications had been lodged against one of the following 2 member States of the Council of Europe: the Russian Federa-tion and Romania.

In 2018 there were almost as many new applications allocated to a judicial forma-tion as existing applications disposed of by the Court.

on 31 December 2018

Italy Turkey Ukraine Romania RussianFederation

7.20%

12.60% 12.90% 15.10%

20.90%

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 2019

Facts & Figures 2018European Court of Human Rights

4 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).

In 2018 about 43,000 applications were allocated to one of the Court’s judicial formations.

on 31 December 2018

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

49,700

57,000

61,100

64,300

64,900

65,800

56,300

40,650

50,400

63,350

43,075

Judgments by State

Almost half the judgments concerned 3 of the 47 member States, namely the Russian Federation (248), Turkey (146) and Ukraine (91). Nearly a quarter of all the judgments delivered by the Court concerned the Russian Federation.

Of the total number of judgments delivered in 2018, the Court found at least one violation of the Convention by the respondent State in 86% of the cases.

Since the Court was established in 1959, the Court has delivered 21,651 judgments. More than a third of them have concerned 3 member States: Turkey (3,532), the Russian Federation (2,501) and Italy (2,396) .

Lithuania Republic ofMoldova

Greece Hungary Romania Ukraine Turkey RussianFederation

3.15% 3.25% 3.45% 3.74%

8.08% 8.97%

14.39%

24.45%

Facts & Figures 2018European Court of Human Rights

6 7

Subject-matter of the Court’s violation judgments

In the judgments delivered by the Court in 2018, 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.

In addition, more than 20% of the violations found concerned serious breaches 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) 3.17%

Protection of property

(P1 - 1) 8.59% Right to an

effective remedy (Art. 13) 11.55%

Other violations 18.21% Right to liberty and

security (Art. 5) 16.34%

Prohibition of torture and inhuman or

degrading treatment (Art. 3) 18.04%

Right to a fair hearing (Art. 6) 24.10%

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.

A single judgment may therefore encompass a number of applications.

In 2018 the Court delivered 1,014 judgments concerning 2,738 applications.

In 2018 the Court completed its examination of a total of 42,761 applications with a judgment or decision or by striking the case out of the list.

In 2018 there were almost as many new applications allocated to a judicial forma-tion as existing applications disposed of by the Court.

1959-98

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

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

1,068

1,014

Facts & Figures 2018European Court of Human Rights

8 9

Sim

plifi

ed fl

ow

cha

rt o

f ca

se-p

roce

ssin

g b

y th

e C

our

t

Relin

quis

hmen

t

Referral

Referral

SIN

GLE

JU

DG

E1

judg

e

Judg

men

t on

the

mer

its

Judg

men

t

CO

MM

ITTE

E3

judg

esCH

AM

BER

7 ju

dges

Inad

mis

sibi

lity

deci

sion

Adm

issi

bilit

yde

cisi

on

COM

MIT

TEE

OF

MIN

ISTE

RS

Judg

men

t on

the

adm

issi

bilit

y

and

mer

its

Judg

men

t on

the

adm

issi

bilit

y

and

mer

its

Inad

mis

sibi

lity

deci

sion

GRA

ND

CH

AM

BER

17 ju

dges

Inad

mis

sibi

lity

deci

sion

IND

IVID

UA

L A

PPLI

CA

TIO

N

Sim

plifi

ed c

ase

-pro

cess

ing fl

ow

chart

by ju

dic

ial f

orm

ation

Throughput of applications in 2018Applications

allocated to a

judicial

formation

Applications

declared

inadmissible or

struck out

Applications in

which

judgment was

delivered

Total number

of applications

decided

2018 2018 2018 2018Albania 99 45 9 54Andorra 3 2 0 2Armenia 167 72 16 88Austria 239 232 8 240Azerbaijan 313 261 43 304Belgium 177 182 10 192Bosnia and Herzegovina 898 683 12 695Bulgaria 774 841 38 879Croatia 669 618 25 643Cyprus 52 42 7 49Czech Republic 349 333 14 347Denmark 37 38 5 43Estonia 132 129 4 133Finland 174 170 0 170France 871 776 37 813Georgia 99 141 10 151Germany 489 478 23 501Greece 420 370 38 408Hungary 902 3,318 91 3,409Iceland 24 15 3 18Ireland 30 26 2 28Italy 1,692 2,256 27 2,283Latvia 259 234 3 237Liechtenstein 9 9 0 9Lithuania 438 429 41 470Luxembourg 35 35 1 36Malta 30 19 14 33Republic of Moldova 814 858 44 902Monaco 5 4 0 4Montenegro 318 264 13 277Netherlands 429 459 4 463North Macedonia 305 263 15 278Norway 84 85 3 88Poland 1,941 2,000 24 2,024Portugal 149 131 9 140Romania 3,369 4,182 519 4,701Russian Federation 12,148 7,258 908 8,166San Marino 4 8 0 8Serbia 2,128 1,224 45 1,269Slovak Republic 390 420 19 439Slovenia 274 303 10 313Spain 592 476 19 495Sweden 194 169 3 172Switzerland 272 265 8 273Turkey 6,717 6,789 320 7,109Ukraine 3,207 2,753 290 3,043United Kingdom 354 358 4 362TOTAL 43,075 40,023 2,738 42,761

Facts & Figures 2018European Court of Human Rights

10 11

Violations by Article and by State1

20

18

Total n

umber

of judgmen

ts

Judg

ments

findin

g at le

ast on

e viol

ation

Judg

ments

findin

g no v

iolati

on

Frien

dly set

tlemen

ts/Str

iking

-out

judgm

ents

Other ju

dgmen

ts1

Right

to life

– dep

rivati

on of li

fe

Lack

of ef

fectiv

e inv

estig

ation

Prohib

ition o

f tortu

re2

Inhum

an or

degrad

ing tre

atmen

t

Lack

of ef

fectiv

e inv

estig

ation

Condit

ional v

iolati

ons3

Prohib

ition o

f slav

ery/fo

rced la

bour

Right

to lib

erty a

nd se

curity

Right

to a f

air tri

al2

Leng

th of

proce

eding

s

Non-en

force

ment

No pun

ishmen

t with

out la

w

Right

to res

pect

for pr

ivate

and f

amily

life2Fre

edom of

thou

ght, c

onsci

ence

and

religi

onFre

edom of

expre

ssion

Freed

om of as

sembly

and as

socia

tion

Right

to marr

y

Right

to an

effec

tive r

emed

y

Prohib

ition o

f disc

rimina

tion

Protec

tion o

f prop

erty

Right

to ed

ucati

on

Right

to fre

e elec

tions

Right

not to

be tri

ed or

punis

hed t

wice

Other A

rticles

of th

e Con

venti

on

Tota

lTo

tal

Tota

lTo

tal

Tota

l2

23

33

2/3

45

66

67

89

10

11

12

13

14

P1-1

P1-2

P1-3

P7-4

Luxe

mbo

urg

11

1

Mal

ta1

21

11

11

23

16

Repu

blic

of M

oldo

va3

32

76

83

143

21

21

16

5

Mon

aco

0

Mon

tene

gro

13

11

22

71

11

2

Net

herla

nds

42

21

1

Nor

th M

aced

onia

12

12

13

31

31

1

Nor

way

31

21

Pola

nd2

12

01

41

36

33

11

2

Port

ugal

43

13

2

Rom

ania

82

71

81

21

537

61

108

36

23

15

Russ

ian

Fede

ratio

n2

48

23

85

14

712

499

122

9946

517

261

1410

673

361

10

San

Mar

ino

0

Serb

ia1

31

21

46

11

Slov

ak R

epub

lic1

18

12

11

31

21

1

Slov

enia

10

54

13

11

Spai

n1

09

11

12

42

Swed

en3

12

1

Switz

erla

nd7

43

12

1

Turk

ey1

46

14

04

21

1011

529

419

38

140

117

33

11

Ukr

aine

91

86

21

21

145

4521

412

121

137

37

10

Uni

ted

King

dom

21

12

1

Sub-

Tota

l8

80

11

36

22

14

31

42

08

44

31

23

21

90

11

04

23

93

47

73

10

16

41

31

22

12

03

0

TOTA

L41

,01

4

Violations by Article and by State1

2018

Total number o

f judgments

Judgments finding at le

ast one violatio

n

Judgments finding no violatio

n

Friendly se

ttlements/

Striking-out

judgmentsOther ju

dgments1

Right

to life

– dep

rivati

on of li

fe

Lack

of ef

fectiv

e inv

estigati

on

Prohib

ition o

f tortu

re2

Inhum

an or

degrad

ing tre

atmen

t

Lack

of ef

fectiv

e inv

estigati

on

Conditio

nal v

iolatio

ns3

Prohib

ition o

f slav

ery/fo

rced la

bour

Right

to lib

erty a

nd se

curity

Right

to a fa

ir tria

l2

Leng

th of p

rocee

dings

Non-en

force

ment

No pun

ishmen

t with

out law

Right

to res

pect

for priv

ate and

family

life2Fre

edom of

thou

ght, co

nscie

nce a

nd

religionFre

edom of

expres

sion

Freed

om of asse

mbly and

asso

ciatio

n

Right

to marry

Right

to an e

ffecti

ve re

medy

Prohib

ition o

f disc

rimina

tion

Protec

tion o

f prope

rty

Right

to ed

ucatio

n

Right

to fre

e elec

tions

Right

not to

be tri

ed or

punish

ed tw

ice

Other A

rticles

of th

e Con

venti

on

Tota

lTo

tal

Tota

lTo

tal

Tota

l2

23

33

2/3

45

66

67

89

10

11

12

13

14

P1-1

P1-2

P1-3

P7-4

Alb

ania

98

11

17

14

2A

ndor

ra0

Arm

enia

16

15

11

12

28

41

21

13

Aus

tria

53

11

12

2A

zerb

aija

n9

91

91

11

11

16

Belg

ium

10

46

21

1Bo

snia

and

6

61

14

5Bu

lgar

ia2

92

72

27

13

31

36

11C

roat

ia2

41

58

11

14

42

3C

ypru

s5

53

11

1C

zech

Rep

ublic

44

11

11

Den

mar

k3

3Es

toni

a4

13

1Fi

nlan

d0

Fran

ce1

68

71

21

12

12

Geo

rgia

10

91

22

14

11

Ger

man

y1

92

15

21

2G

reec

e3

53

04

111

36

29

12

121

Hun

gary

38

35

21

12

110

22

16

16Ic

elan

d2

2Ir

elan

d2

11

11

Italy

14

11

12

22

12

14

13

Latv

ia3

12

1Li

echt

enst

ein

0Li

thua

nia

32

23

81

91

33

51

13

8

This

tabl

e ha

s be

en g

ener

ated

aut

omat

ical

ly, u

sing

the

conc

lusi

ons

reco

rded

in th

e m

etad

ata

for

each

judg

men

t con

tain

ed in

HU

DO

C, t

he C

ourt’

s ca

se-la

w

data

base

.1.

Oth

er ju

dgm

ents:

just

satis

fact

ion,

rev

isio

n, p

relim

inar

y ob

ject

ions

and

lack

of j

uris

dict

ion.

2. F

igur

es in

this

col

umn

may

incl

ude

cond

ition

al v

iola

tions

.3.

Cas

es in

whi

ch th

e C

ourt

held

ther

e w

ould

be

a vi

olat

ion

of A

rticl

e 2

and/

or 3

if th

e ap

plic

ant w

as r

emov

ed to

a S

tate

whe

re h

e/sh

e w

as a

t ris

k.4.

Six

judg

men

ts ar

e ag

ains

t mor

e th

an o

ne S

tate

: Rep

ublic

of M

oldo

va a

nd R

ussi

an F

eder

atio

n (fi

ve ju

dgm

ents)

; and

Rep

ublic

of M

oldo

va, R

ussi

an F

eder

atio

n an

d U

krai

ne.

March 2019

European Court of Human RightsPublic Relations UnitF-67075 Strasbourg cedex

w w w . e c h r . c o e . i n t