Russia and the European Human Rights System
Channel: Norsk utenrikspolitisk institutt NUPI
Date: 2019-11-08

There is a change in Russia's approach to the European Convention on Human Rights. What are the prospects for Russian participation in this system? 



Russia eagerly ratified the European Convention on Human Rights in 1998. While Russian compliance has always been partial, the overall results have been undeniably positive for Russia.

But the relationship between Moscow and Strasbourg is changing in ways that threaten both Russia’s future participation in, and the continued vitality of, the European human rights system. Claiming the need to defend Russian sovereignty against “subordination,” the Russian Constitutional Court has begun to challenge core authorities of the European Court of Human Rights, while the Kremlin and the Foreign Ministry advance similar critiques against the Council of Europe’s other institutions.

Although other parties to the European Convention have been delinquent in meeting their obligations and express their differences with the Council of Europe, the Russian approach is simultaneously both new and entirely predictable from the origins of Russian membership more than twenty years ago. What does the future hold?

This is what Jeffrey Kahn will talk about when he visits NUPI on 8 November. Kahn is a professor of law at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.

Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Research group on Russia, Asia and International Trade at NUPI, Helge Blakkisrud, will moderate the seminar.