“Promotion of the publication ‘The Admissibility Criteria under the European Convention on Human Rights and Macedonian Cases before the Strasbourg Court’”

On 10 December, the International Human Rights Day, the publication “The Admissibility Criteria under the European Convention on Human Rights and Macedonian Cases before the Court in Strasbourg” was promoted.

The publication, authored by Prof. Dr. Jelena Ristikj and published by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, represents a timely and comprehensive analysis of the human rights protection system within the framework of the European Convention, with a particular focus on the admissibility criteria for applications in Strasbourg and on Macedonian cases before the Court.

“For years, the Foundation has been developing its publishing program as support for university teaching and as a means of providing high-quality, accessible, and professionally grounded materials. This publication is intended not only for lawyers, but also for judges, prosecutors, professors, and, most importantly, students—the future defenders of citizens’ freedoms and rights,” said Nita Starova, Project Coordinator at FES, emphasizing that the work is also valuable for non-governmental organizations, political actors, and the wider public wishing to gain knowledge about the protection mechanisms before the Court in Strasbourg.

“The human rights protection system is based on the principle of subsidiarity: states are the ones that must first guarantee and protect rights, and the Court in Strasbourg intervenes only when states fail to fulfill their obligations. Although every citizen has the right to lodge an application with the Court in Strasbourg, a large number of applications, including those from North Macedonia, do not reach an assessment on the merits because they fail to meet the admissibility criteria. Only about five percent of applications against our state are declared admissible. This has serious consequences: applicants wait for years, the Court is overburdened, and the state misses out on the valuable corrective effect that judicial judgments have on the advancement of human rights,” emphasized Prof. Dr. Jelena Ristikj, author of the publication.

You can find the publication here.