Russian lawmakers voted Friday to ratify a key protocol on reforming the European Court of Human Rights, clearing the way for the long-delayed reform after years of resistance from Moscow.
The lower house of Russia's parliament, the Duma, ratified the protocol with an overwhelming majority of 392 votes in favour and 56 opposed, reversing its previous rejection of the protocol in 2006. Russia was the last member of the 47-nation Council of Europe not to have ratified Protocol 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, aimed at streamlining the court's work and reducing its backlog of cases.
Officials in Moscow have frequently complained about the Strasbourg-based court, which has often ruled against Russia in cases concerning atrocities in Chechnya and conditions in Russian prisons. "The ratification of the protocol is important for the European Court," said Vladimir Pligin, head of the Duma's constitutional law committee and a member of the ruling United Russia party.
"We deeply respect the work of the European court, and I think that many of its decisions will find an appropriate reflection in the work of Russian courts," Pligin added. The Duma's decision - which had been all but assured after the ruling United Russia party gave its blessing earlier this week - was immediately welcomed by the Council of Europe.
"By joining the other 46 member states, Russia is sending a strong signal of its commitment to Europe," Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland said in a statement. Some Duma deputies had complained that the Strasbourg court was anti-Russian when they initially rejected the protocol in 2006.
Russian officials said they had dropped their opposition after the Council of Europe agreed to a provision stating that a Russian judge would participate in any decisions concerning Russia. Russia is the biggest source of pending cases at the court. Some 27,000 cases out of the 112,000 cases awaiting review by the court originated from Russia, according to the Russian foreign ministry.
Besides complaints from Chechens about abuses committed by the Russian army, Moscow has also been irked by cases concerning the Yukos oil company and its jailed billionaire founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. This week the court delayed hearing a 98-billion-dollar (68-billion-euro) case brought against the Russian government by Yukos, which contends it was unfairly prosecuted and driven into bankruptcy.
The Kremlin reversed its stance on the court reform because it needs closer economic co-operation with Europe as it seeks to modernise the crisis-battered Russian economy, said independent political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin. "In the near future, Russia will need to cooperate more with Europe," Oreshkin said.
"One of the EU's principal complaints against Russia was protocol 14, and (President Dmitry) Medvedev wanted to demonstrate his engagement with Europe on democracy and human rights." Russia also had nothing to lose by ratifying the protocol because the reform will simply help the court become more efficient, said Sergei Davidis, a lawyer for the Memorial human rights organisation.
"It was no longer possible to delay this simplification of European justice without seeming like a saboteur," Davidis said. "The refusal to ratify did not make sense because this had no effect on the number of cases against Russia; that is independent of the reform." Protocol 14 must still be passed by the upper house of Russia's parliament, the Federation Council, in order to be ratified, but that vote is largely seen as a formality.
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