HL Deb 12 June 1995 vol 564 cc102-4WA
Lord Lester of Herne Hill

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will explain the basis upon which they calculated that France is twelfth in the "league table" for breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights referred to by Baroness Blatch on 25th January (HL Deb, col. 1166) and 29th March (HL Deb, col. 1697).

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

The basis for the calculations to which the noble Lord refers was explained in my Answer to him of 9 May (col.WA4).

Regrettably, I have to advise the noble Lord that the revised table enclosed with my subsequent reply on 5 June 1995 (cols. WA86–90) contained a further error in respect of Finland. A corrected table has been placed in the Libraries of the House. This places Finland in 12th position for frequency of violations of the convention, taking into account size of population and the length of time the right of individual petition has been accepted by each State Party. In consequence, France moves down to 13th position in the table, Portugal to 14th and the United Kingdom to 15th. The figures are intended only as a yardstick, however, and not as a precise statistical basis for comparison.

ECHR violations: Comparative table of states' records (based on judgements of European Court of Human Rights)
State party Population Number of violations found by Court (at 29.3.95) Date of acceptance of Art. 25 Number of years of acceptance of Art. 25 Violations per 100,000 at population per annum1 Position
Luxembourg 395,200 0 28.4.58 37 0.0000 —
Malta 366,541 1 1.5.87 8 0.0341 1
Netherlands 15,240,000 23 28.6.60 35 0.0043 10
Norway 4,299,167 1 10.12.55 40 0.0006 18
Poland 38,300,000 0 1.5.93 2 0.0000 —
Portugal 9,862,700 6 9.11.78 17 0.00358 14
Romania 22,760,449 0 20.6.94 1 0.0000 —
San Marino 24,000 0 22.3.89 6 0.0000 —
Slovakia 5,274,335 0 — — 0.0000 —
Slovenia 2,020,000 0 20.6.94 1 0.0000 —
Spain 38,872,268 7 1.7.81 14 0.0013 16
Sweden 8,635,000 21 4.2.52 43 0.0057 8
Switzerland 6,833,750 14 28.11.74 21 0.0098 4
Turkey 60,777,000 0 28.1.87 8 0.0000 —
United Kingdom 56,467,000 35 14.1.66 29 0.0021 15
1 Figures rounded to four, or where necessary, five decimal places.