Human Rights Court adopts anti-coronavirus measures

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is taking a number of exceptional measures to respond to the coronavirus crisis. 

With France heading into lockdown, the court's premises are no longer accessible to the public and the hearings scheduled for March and April are cancelled, pending further decisions.

The court also announced that the six-month time-limit for the lodging of applications, under article 35 of the European Convention on Human Rights, has been exceptionally suspended for a one-month period running from today, 16 March 2020. All time-limits in proceedings currently pending before the court have similarly been suspended for one month from today. 

Essential activities of the court will in principle be maintained, especially the handling of priority cases, and teleworking has been put in place within the court as a general rule, to ensure the continuity of its tasks. 

Procedures have been adopted for the examination of urgent requests for interim measures, where there is an imminent risk of irreversible harm in terms of rule 39 of the court's rules.

The court said it would keep these new working arrangements constantly under review, "depending on the evolution of the sanitary situation, so that every effort is made to ensure the court carries on functioning while complying with the rules laid down by its host state".