MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2021) Challenging times are ahead for human rights in Europe amid democratic values being increasingly called into question and COVID-19 abused by some member states to justify disproportionate regulations, President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Robert Spano said on Thursday.
"Increased polarisation and challenges to Europe's fundamental principles, together with the global COVID-19 pandemic, are likely to create the most difficult period we have seen in many years," Spano said at the court's annual press conference in Strasbourg, as quoted in a press release by the Council of Europe.
According to the ECHR president, such values as democracy, the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law, in particular, get progressively called into question at both the European and global levels.
"The on-going pandemic has already raised a number of important human rights issues, including the proportionality of measures taken by Council of Europe member states, the legal basis of those measures and the use of domestic procedures to sanction actions or inaction," Spano was quoted as saying.
In 2020, for the first time in its history the ECHR held public hearings online.
Spano considers this an important measure for reducing the backlog of cases that have accumulated before the court since the pandemic's start. According to the official, there were approximately 62,000 such cases at the end of 2020.
The ECHR president called on Council of Europe member states to fulfill their commitments and implement the court's judgments, which he described as "crystal clear" from the legal standpoint.
