Protocol 15 to the European Convention on Human Rights enter into force.

On 1st August 2021, protocol number 15 to the European Convention on Human Rights entered into force. Ratified by all the member states of the Council of Europe, the protocol amends the preamble of the Convention by including a reference to the principle of subsidiarity and the margin of appreciation doctrine. Furthermore, the protocol changes the time break for applicants to lodge an application before the European Court since the final decision of the domestic court. Before, those interested in applying before the Court needed to wait for 6 months since the exhaustion of the domestic proceedings, but now the protocol 15 deduced this amount of time to 4 months. In addition, the protocol amended a few other terms of the Convention. Concerning the admissibility criterion of “significant disadvantage”, the second condition, namely that a case that has not been duly considered by a domestic tribunal cannot be rejected, has been amended and this provision was deleted. Also, the parties of a case can no longer object to its relinquishment by a Chamber in favour of the Grand Chamber. Lastly, from now on, those running for positions of judges at the court must be less than 65 years of age at the date by which the list of three candidates has been requested by the Parliamentary Assembly. For further information, please visit: https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng-press#{%22itemid%22:[%22003-7088764-9588986%22]}