Civil Society and the Copenhagen Declaration on Reform of the European Court of Human Rights

As members of the Council of Europe gathered in Copenhagen on April 11, under the presidency of Denmark, civil society groups met to review Denmark's efforts to introduce a further round of reforms to the workings of the European Court of Human Rights.

In these remarks to the civil society meeting, James A. Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, noted that civil society had played an important role in raising concerns over the scope of the initial Danish proposals.

This input helped produce a final declaration that  recognizes the ultimate authority of the Court—rather than member states—to determine whether the European Convention on Human Rights has been violated.

The civil society convening was organized by the faculty of law of the University of Copehagen, together with iCourts, Nyt Europa, and Amnesty International.