Russia has lifted its opposition to a long-delayed reform of the European Court of Human Rights in a major gesture towards the West and a step to improve the Russian legal system.
The Russian Parliament’s Lower House, State Duma, on Friday overwhelmingly ratified Protocol 14 of the European Human Rights Convention, which will allow the 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.
But Friday’s vote is also a sign of warming relations between Russia and Europe that soured 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 Strasbourg Court for the past three years.
The ratification of the protocol is in line with Mr. 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.
