Inter-state applications before the ECHR

Abstract

The years following the Second World War the members of the newly formed Council of Europe were convinced that there should be established a protective system of the “common heritage of political traditions, ideas, freedom and the rule of law”. The horrific atrocities that took place during the WWII should never be repeated and the peace and democracy should prevail in Europe. That was the objective of the founding members of the European Convention of Human Rights, who assigned to the ECHR the task of the collective enforcement of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The interstate application, which serves as a collective enforcement mechanism of the protected rights and the envisaged commitments, is a means to achieve the collective guarantee purpose of the Convention.