HL Deb 22 June 1995 vol 565 cc29-30WA
Lord Finsberg

asked Her Majesty's Government:

To give a comparative table of member states records in alleged violations of the European Convention on Human Rights stating in particular the number of applications to the Commission, the number of applications dealt with by the Court and the number of violations per million of population per annum in the case of each country.

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Chalker of Wallesey)

In the time available my officials have not been able to obtain from the Secretariat of the Council of Europe the total number of applications made to the European Convention on Human Rights since the Convention came into force. The following figures show the number of provisional files opened by the Commission during 1994, followed in brackets by the number of cases found admissible in that year. These figures do not of course reflect the numerous applications received by the Commission which do not lead to the opening of a file.

Austria 238(23), Belgium 212(5), Bulgaria 48(nil), Cyprus 12(nil), Czech Republic 111(nil), Denmark 92(2), Finland 109(3), France 1637 (63), Germany 836(4), Greece 118(104), Hungary 184(nil), Iceland 7(nil), Ireland 43(1), Italy 1858(298), Luxembourg 21(nil), Malta 7(nil), Netherlands 192(8), Norway 34(2), Poland 979(nil), Portugal 121(26), Romania 597(nil), San Marino 6(nil), Slovak Republic 100 (nil), Slovenia 33(nil), Spain 254(1) Sweden 360(20), Switzerland 229(6) Turkey 130(29), United Kingdom 945(16). Other or not stated 454(nil).

I refer my noble friend to the reply I gave to the noble Lord, the Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 12 June (cols. WA102 to 104), which gave details of the number of violations found by the Court up to March 1995, and showing the ratio of violations per 100,000 head of population per annum.