Article 34/35 - Individual applications and Admissibility criteria
All Updates
Cases selected for updating the Case-Law Guide.
S.M. v. Italy, no. 16310/20
Article 35: applicant’s decision to lodge the application with the Court while the proceedings were still pending before the competent supervisory court was justified due to the uncertainty as to whether his case would be considered promptly in view of suspensions and delays at that court at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Judgment
Eldar Hasanov v. Azerbaijan, no. 12058/21
Article 34: State’s failure to comply with initial interim measures and excessively long delays in complying with modified interim measures.
Judgment
Validity Foundation on behalf of T.J. v. Hungary, no. 31970/20
Article 34: standing of a non-governmental organisation to lodge an application on behalf of a person with a severe intellectual disability who died in a State-run social care home.
Judgment
Jesus Pinhal v. Portugal, nos. 48047/15 and 2276/20
Article 57: reservation made by Portugal concerning Article 4 of Protocol No. 7 invalid because the requirement of Article 57 § 2 has not been met (i.e. reservation lacks brief statement of the law concerned).
Judgment
A.L. and E.J. v. France (dec.), nos. 44715/20 and 47930/21
Article 35: neither the fact that the applicants lived outside France nor the fact that they had not freely chosen to come under the respondent State’s jurisdiction exempted them from their duty to exhaust the available and presumably effective domestic remedies in France.
Decision | Legal Summary
Mamić v. Croatia (dec.), nos. 21714/22 and 2 others
Article 35: application tainted by the applicants’ manipulation, through bribes, of the domestic justice system. Abuse of the right of application.
Decision | Legal Summary
Kurkut and Others v. Türkiye, nos. 58901/19 and 6 others
Article 35: exhaustion of domestic remedies where the relevant administrative court had made a clear procedural error for which the applicant could not be reproached.
Judgment
Ukraine v. Russia (re Crimea) [GC], nos. 20958/14 and 38334/18
Article 35: Court’s jurisdiction ratione temporis with respect to acts or omissions of a respondent State that has ceased to be a Contracting Party to the Convention.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Cassar v. Malta (dec.), no. 14179/21
Article 35: delay of more than two weeks to dispatch the application to the Court afresh after becoming aware of a problem with postal services.
Decision
Varyan v. Armenia, no. 48998/14
Article 35: respondent State estopped from raising plea of non-exhaustion in view of failure to raise preliminary objection in initial observations.
Judgment
The J. Paul Getty Trust and Others v. Italy, no. 35271/19
Article 34: applicant trust sufficiently affected by a confiscation order despite it not being enforced yet.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Guðmundur Gunnarsson and Magnús Davíð Norðdahl v. Iceland, nos. 24159/22 and 25751/22
Article 35: exhaustion of domestic remedies on the basis of a general provision providing a judicial remedy but in the absence of domestic case-law to that effect.
Judgment
Carême v. France (dec.) [GC], no. 7189/21
Article 34: lack of sufficient action to mitigate climate change – the victim status of an individual.
Decision | Legal Summary
Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Others (dec.) [GC], no. 39371/20
Article 35: exhaustion of domestic remedies in the context of climate change.
Decision | Legal Summary
Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland [GC], no. 53600/20
Article 34: lack of sufficient action to mitigate effects of climate change - locus standi of an association of older women concerned about the consequences of global warming and victim status of four individual women.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Boronenkov v. Ukraine (dec.), no. 9987/14
Article 35: first application of the “no-significant disadvantage” criterion with respect to Article 11.
Decision
Mehmet Zeki Doğan v. Türkiye (no. 2), no. 3324/19
Article 35: application of the six-month rule to reopened criminal proceedings.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Narbutas v. Lithuania, no. 14139/21
Article 35: failure to lodge a civil claim to obtain redress for an alleged breach of the presumption of innocence by public officials’ statements. Exhaustion of domestic remedies.
Judgment
Communauté genevoise d'action syndicale (CGAS) v. Switzerland [GC], no. 21881/20
Article 34 and 35 § 1: unjustified abandonment by the applicant association of an application for holding a public event in view of a Covid-19 related ban; victim status and compliance with the exhaustion requirement.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Ghazaryan and Bayramyan v. Azerbaijan, no. 33050/18
Article 34: existence of exceptional circumstances allowing applicants to lodge the application, without written authority, in the name and on behalf of their vulnerable son, with mental health issues and in detention. Locus standi.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Asgarova and Veselova v. Armenia (dec.), no. 24382/15
Article 34: lack of exceptional circumstances allowing applicants to lodge the application in the name and on behalf of their partners without written authority. Locus standi.
Decision | Legal Summary
Hasanov and Others v. Azerbaijan (dec.), nos. 2059/16 and 3 others
Article 34: victim status retained but matter resolved following the annulment of the applicants' criminal convictions, their acquittal and compensation.
Decision
Calvi and C.G. v. Italy, no. 46412/21
Article 34: locus standi of a relative to act on behalf of an elderly person under legal protection.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Blazheski v. North Macedonia (dec.), no. 38692/16
Article 35: scope of "the rights and responsibilities of a private law character" for the purpose of the applicability of Article 5 of Protocol No. 7. Compatibility ratione materiae.
Decision
Nurcan Bayraktar v. Türkiye, no. 27094/20
Article 34: applicant suffering directly from the consequences of the legal provision at stake by the mere fact that she belonged to the category of divorced women likely to remarry. Victim status.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Bryan and Others v. Russia, no. 22515/14
Article 35: Inter-state arbitration proceedings under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea do not constitute "another procedure of international investigation or settlement".
Judgment
Margari v. Greece, no. 36705/16
Article 37: examination of the case despite the applicant's lack of contact with her representative.
Judgment
Chennouf and Others v. France (dec.), no. 4704/19
Article 34: acknowledgment of a responsibility and ex gratia awards made to the applicants for the killing of their relative by a non-State actor. Loss of victim status.
Decision
Sperisen v. Switzerland, no. 22060/20
Article 35: dies a quo in the context of a recusal request. Six-months.
Judgment
Pivkina and Others v. Russia (dec.), nos. 2134/23 and 6 others
Article 35: limits of the Court’s jurisdiction with respect to acts or omissions spanning across the date on which a respondent State ceased to be a Party to the Convention.
Decision | Legal Summary
FU QUAN, s.r.o. v. the Czech Republic [GC], no. 24827/14
Article 35: access to court and the requirement to exhaust domestic remedies.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Grosam v. the Czech Republic [GC], no. 19750/13
Articles 34 and 35: distinction between complaints and secondary arguments and the consequent delimiting of the Court’s ability to recharacterise a complaint.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Ferrara and Others v. Italy (dec.), nos. 2394/22 and 18 others
Article 35: unjustified fragmentation of domestic enforcement proceedings, multiplying awards of legal fees to lawyer applicants and extending length of proceedings. Abuse of the right of application.
Decision | Legal Summary
A.M. and Others v. Poland (dec.), nos. 4188/21 and 7 others
Article 34: in abstracto complaints without convincing evidence that applicants at real risk of being directly affected by amendments effectively banning access to legal abortion on foetal malformation grounds. Victim status.
Decision | Legal Summary
Chief Rabbinate of the Jewish Community in Izmir v. Türkiye, no. 1574/12
Article 34: locus standi of the Chief Rabbinate despite lack of legal personality.
Judgment
Szaxon v. Hungary (dec.), no. 54421/21
Article 35: new compensatory remedy for the protractedness of civil proceedings considered effective and requiring exhaustion.
Decision | Legal Summary
Mamasakhlisi and Others v. Georgia and Russia, nos. 29999/04 and 41424/04
Article 35: six months’ time-limit assessed taking into account the applicants’ vulnerability.
Judgment
Croatian Radio-Television v. Croatia, no. 52132/19 and 19 others
Article 34: locus standi of a public broadcaster.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Kreyndlin and Others v. Russia, no. 33470/18
Article 38: expiration of domestic statutory time-limit for storage of materials not constituting a reasonable explanation for the failure to comply with the Court’s request to provide documents.
Judgment
Sorbalo v. the Republic of Moldova (dec.), no. 1210/10
Article 34: annulment of a judge's dismissal and reinstatement in his post. Loss of victim status.
Decision
Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia (dec.) [GC], nos. 8019/16 and 2 others
Article 35: relevance of non-domestic remedies in an inter-State case for the purposes of the application of the six-month rule.
Decision | Legal Summary
Khural and Zeynalov v. Azerbaijan (no. 2), no. 383/12
Article 34: locus standi of editor-in-chief who was not party to the proceedings against newspaper.
Judgment
Hoppen and trade union of AB Amber Grid employees v. Lithuania, no. 976/20
Article 34: trade union’s victim status to complain about dismissal of its member.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Gherardi Martiri v. San Marino, no. 35511/20
Article 35: the rule of confidentiality, provocative statements within acceptable limits and degree of tolerance under Article 35 § 3 (a). Abuse of the right of petition.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Orhan v. Türkiye (dec.), no. 38358/22
Protocol No. 15: date of adoption of the final decision determines time-limit (six or four months) to lodge application before the Court.
Decision | Legal Summary
Aygün v. Belgium, no. 28336/12
Article 35: ban on burying sons abroad. Compatibility ratione materiae (Article 8 “private life" and "family").
Judgment
Gaggl v. Austria, no. 63950/19
Article 34: surviving husband, albeit the victim of the crime, with legitimate interest in the circumstances in pursuing application in late wife’s stead. Locus standi.
Judgment
Kotov and Others v. Russia, nos. 6142/18 and 13 others
Article 35: applicants not absolved from the obligation to exhaust domestic remedies by virtue of the proceedings brought by the first applicant.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Pavlov and Others v. Russia, no. 31612/09
Article 35: applicants absolved from the obligation to exhaust domestic remedies by virtue of the appeal brought by the other applicants.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Paketova and Others v. Bulgaria, nos. 17808/19 and 36972/19
Article 35: multiple applicants and exhaustion of domestic remedies by only some of them.
Judgment | Legal Summary