Supervision of the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights 2023 - 17th Annual Report of the Committee of Ministers (2024)

Latest Annual Report on the execution of the European Court's judgments and decisions: significant progress, but important challenges remain The Annual Report contains an overview of major advances and challenges recorded in the execution of the European Court’s judgments and decisions in 2023. It also provides a state by state overview along with statistics on notably: new, pending and closed cases; payment of just satisfaction awarded to applicants; and submission of action plans and reports by respondent states.2023 continued to be marked by the full-fledged war of aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which continued to cause extraordinary suffering but also had severe consequences on Ukraine’s capacity to promptly execute the Court’s judgments. Nevertheless, Ukraine continued to demonstrate its commitment to the Convention system by actively engaging in the execution process.The Committee of Ministers also implemented various innovative strategies in 2023 to supervise judgments against the Russian Federation by for example hearing directly from key interlocutors, including civil society and the United Nations.For the first time, the statistics in the 2023 annual report are separated into those related to member states and those related to the Russian Federation, to give a clearer vision of the developments in the execution of cases pending against member states who continue to participate actively in the execution process and where progress is continually reported.The adoption of the Reykjavík Declaration by the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe in 2023 was a key milestone, as member states at the highest- level expressly reaffirmed their unwavering commitment to the Convention system and underlined the importance of the full, effective and prompt execution of the Court’s judgments. To this end, and following the guiding framework set out in that Declaration, the Department for the Execution of Judgments intensified work in 2023 to assist states through co-operation and dialogue with a record number of 140 missions and bilateral meetings with national authorities. Work also continued to increase the transparency of the execution process and reinforce as far as possible its participatory character and led to a steady increase in communications from civil society organisations and national human rights institutions.