The Participation of Non-Governmental Organisations and National Human Rights Institutions in the Execution of Judgments of the Strasbourg Court Exploring Rule 9 Communications at the Committee of Ministers

Abstract

Although relatively unknown, a formal role has been devised for non-governmental organisations and National Human Rights Institutions in the execution process of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. By virtue of Rule 9 of the Rules of the Committee of Ministers, ngos and nhris are empowered to be involved in this process by submitting written Communications for consideration by the Committee of Ministers. This exploratory research identifies the role ngos and nhris play through Rule 9, and demonstrates the added value of involving these actors in this respect. As such, this article provides a first inventory and exploration of these Rule 9 Communications, detailing the extent to which Rule 9 is made use of, by whom, in what way and, finally, whether these Communications (visibly) play a role in the supervision process. Combined, this reveals that ngos and nhris use Rule 9 to review, assess and report on the performance of domestic authorities with regard to the execution of judgments of the ECtHR. In doing so, they appear to act as an amicus in the execution process, by providing valuable observations at the echr level and, as such, it is argued that their participation is a welcome one.