The European Court of Human Rights is facing a “serious test” over the coming years, Ireland’s judge on the court has said.
The court is one for the citizens, not the governments, of the 46 Council of Europe member states, said Judge Úna Ní Raifeartaigh, adding that she is glad Ireland supports the court’s project.
She said the challenges facing the court include the turbulent political context in the modern world and potential for bad-faith actors “to seize on anything they can do to undermine the court”.
Humans all over Europe are subjected to the kinds of ill-treatment that inspired the creation of the European Convention on Human Rights in the first place, she said.
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“Even the sanitised paper versions of their stories that pass across my desk on a daily basis can sometimes chill the blood.”
Human rights may be seen as “soft law” in Ireland but the court is “a beacon of light” for people who themselves, or whose loved ones, suffer death, torture, inhumane and degrading treatment, arbitrary detention and the crushing of basic civil and political freedoms, including expressing opinions and engaging in public protest, she said.
The judge was speaking at an event in Dublin celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment in 1975 of the Law Reform Commission.
Her address included an outline of how cases taken to the European Court of Human Rights had an impact in Ireland, including that of Josie Airey, which led to the State providing access to free legal aid.
Other speakers included Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell, Attorney General Rossa Fanning and law reform experts from Ireland, England, Scotland and Australia.
The Attorney General, whose office funds the Law Reform Commission, said the commission has shaped countless aspects of the Irish legal system and, over the next 50 years, must continue to evolve like the law it seeks to reform.
Any consideration of its future value must have “significant regard” to the process by which law is actually made, Mr Fanning said.
The anniversary provided an opportunity to reflect on the pace of the commission’s work programme and to consider how it could be accelerated, he said.
Judge Ní Raifeartaigh, who was appointed to the European Court of Human Rights last year, having served as a judge of the Court of Appeal and High Court, said that in the face of “so much chaos and conflict” in Europe, some have questioned the point of the Strasbourg court because it cannot enforce its judgments where countries ignore them.
She was told those who have suffered human rights abuses, including torture, saw the Strasbourg court as “a beacon of light, a roadmap to the future and a formal record of ill-treatment for history”, even when its decisions were not enforced.
“All of these have been mentioned to me as reasons for the convention organs and for the courts to plough on even where they seem to have the least impact because that is perhaps where they are most needed and valued.”
The key feature of the European Court of Human Rights from the outset was the right of individual petition, she said. “It is a court for the citizens of the countries, not a court for their governments.”
The court has extremely limited resources and is dealing with a huge volume of cases of ever-increasing complexity, she said. About 60,00 cases are outstanding.
The challenges include differences among its judges of legal culture, legal professional background and political and domestic backdrops. It has to craft statements that speak to 46 countries and are flexible enough to take account of domestic differences while maintaining enough content to uphold convention guarantees.
She sometimes saw it as “a miracle that it has worked as well as it has done”.
By supporting the court and the convention, Ireland is contributing not just to the protection of rights at home but is standing in solidarity with citizens in countries who do not have the luxury of the rights we have come to take for granted, she said.
