Presidents of Estonia, Riigikogu meet with president of ECHR
Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid and President of the Riigikogu Eiki Nestor each met with President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Guido Raimondi in Tallinn on Thursday.
At their meeting in Kadriorg, in which Julia Laffranque, an Estonian judge of the ECHR, also participated, Kaljulaid and Raimondi discussed the challenges facing Europe in light of the migration crisis and security situation as well as their impact on the work of the ECHR.
Likewise meeting on Thursday, Nestor and Raimondi discussed issues related to the overloading of the ECHR as well as the role of national parliaments in ensuring human rights. Other topics of discussion with the President of the Riigikogu included the Delfi AS case deliberated upon by the human rights' court involving a portal's responsibility for its online comments as well as the amendment to Russian law that has entered into force which allows Russia's Constitutional Court to declare the execution of a decision reached by ECHR to be impossible if the decision in question is in conflict with the Russian Constitution.
During the latter's visit, Nestor and Raimondi also discussed the ratification in Estonia of 16th protocol of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which would grant the Riigikogu the right to request advisory preliminary opinions from the ECHR.
The ECHR is an international court, established in 1959, which has been based in Strasbourg, France since 1998. It hears applications alleging that a contracting state has breached one or more of the human rights provisions concerning civil and political rights as set out in the European Convention on Human Rights and its protocols.
All 47 member states of the Council of Europe are contracting parties to the Convention.
Editor: Editor: Aili Vahtla