Protocol No. 15 amending the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Sovereign Order no. 11.043 of 22 January 2025)

Presentation

Protocol No. 15 amending the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (CETS No. 213) was opened for signature on 24 June 2013. It was ratified by Monaco on 13 November 2013 and made enforceable by Sovereign Order no. 11.043 of 22 January 2025 (JDM no. 8732 of 31 January 2025).

Italy is the last State to have deposited its instruments of ratification with the Council of Europe, on 21 April 2021, thus enabling it to enter into force in respect of all States parties to the ECHR from 1 August 2021, in accordance with Article 7 of Protocol No. 15.

The purpose of the changes made by the Protocol to the ECHR is to maintain the effectiveness of the European Court of Human Rights.

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Amendments to the ECHR resulting from Protocol No. 15

¤ Addition of a final recital to the Preamble to the ECHR referring to the principle of subsidiarity and the doctrine of the margin of appreciation enjoyed by States (Art. 1 Protocol No. 15 amending the Preamble to the ECHR)

Entry into force: 1 August 2021.

• The doctrine of the national margin of appreciation, which depends on the circumstances of the case and the rights and freedoms in question, has been developed in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in order to reconcile the common standard upheld by the Convention with the safeguarding of legal pluralism. The Court's role is to examine whether the decisions taken by the national authorities are compatible with the Convention, having regard to the margin of appreciation available to the States.
• The Convention system is subsidiary to the safeguarding of human rights at national level, as national authorities are in principle better placed than an international court to assess local needs and conditions.

¤ Reduction of the time limit for lodging an application with the European Court of Human Rights from six to four months following the last final domestic decision of the highest judicial or administrative court (Art. 4 Protocol No. 15 amending Art. 35, § 1 ECHR)

Entry into force: 1 February 2022

• The development of faster communication technologies and the appeal periods in force in Council of Europe member states, which are of equivalent length, were cited as reasons for reducing the time limit for lodging applications (a condition of admissibility).
• The new four-month time limit does not apply to applications in respect of which the final domestic decision was taken before the date of entry into force of the new rule.

¤ Amendment of the admissibility criterion concerning ‘significant disadvantage’ to remove the requirement that the case must have been duly examined by a domestic court (Article 5 of Protocol No. 15 amending Article 35 § 3 b ECHR)

Entry into force: 1 August 2021 for new applications and applications for which the decision on admissibility is pending on that date.

The application may be declared inadmissible if the applicant has not suffered any significant prejudice.

• The second safeguard clause concerning the requirement that the case must have been duly examined by a domestic court is deleted in order to give greater effect to the maxim de minimis no curat praetor (the Court does not deal with cases of lesser importance).
• The first safeguard clause remains: consideration of the merits of the application if respect for human rights so requires.

¤ Abolition of the right of the parties to a case to oppose the relinquishment of jurisdiction by a Chamber in favour of the Grand Chamber (Article 3 of Protocol No. 15 amending Article 30 ECHR)

Entry into force: 1 August 2021.

• This deletion was made in the interests of consistency with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (which in 2012 considered amending Rule 72 of its Rules so that Chambers would be required to relinquish jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber when they were considering departing from well-established case law), and of speeding up proceedings in cases that raise a serious question of interpretation of the ECHR or its protocols or that could potentially lead to a departure from existing case law.
• Inapplicability of the abolition of the parties' right to object to the Chamber's relinquishment of jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber to pending cases in which one of the parties had already objected, before the Protocol came into force, to a proposal to relinquish jurisdiction.

¤ Replacement of the age limit for judges at 70 by the requirement that candidates for the post of judge be under 65 years of age on the date on which the list of three candidates is expected by the Parliamentary Assembly (Art. 2 Protocol No. 15 introducing a new § 2 to Article 23 ECHR)

Entry into force: 1 August 2021 for candidates on lists submitted to the Parliamentary Assembly after that date.

• The aim is to strengthen the coherence of the Court's composition by enabling judges to hold office for their full nine-year (non-renewable) term.
• Candidates appearing on the lists already submitted, judges in office and judges elected on the date of entry into force of the Protocol will continue to be subject to the rule applicable prior to the entry into force of the Protocol, namely the expiry of their term of office on reaching the age of 70.

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