Protocol no. 14 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, amending the control system of the Convention

Parties with reservations, declarations and objections

Party	Reservations / Declarations	Objections
Belgium	Yes	No
Latvia	Yes	No
Moldova	Yes	No
Poland	Yes	No
Russian Federation	Yes	No

Belgium

20-04-2005

Concerning Article 12 of the amending Protocol modifying Article 35 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Belgium declares that it understands this provision within the meaning specified in particular in paragraphs 79, 80, 83 and 84 of the Explanatory Report, from which it results that:
- the Court shall apply the new admissibility criterion by establishing a case-law allowing to define the legal terms which state this criterion on the basis of an interpretation establishing objective critera of definition (paragraphs 79 et 80);
- the new criteron is designed to avoid rejection of cases warranting an examination on the merits (paragraph 83);
- the single-judge formations and committees will not be able to apply the new critera in the absence of a clear and well established case-law of the Court's Chambers and Grand Chamber (paragraph 84).

Latvia

28-03-2006

Bearing in mind Article 20, paragraph 2, of Protocol No. 14 to the Convention (herinafter referred to as "this Protocol"), the Republic of Latvia interprets Article 12 of this Protocol amending Article 35 of the Convention (herinafter referred to as "the Convention"), in the following manner:
1. The new admissibility criterion may not be applied to reject such applications, which examination would otherwise be important for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms as defined in the Convention and the Protocols thereto, as well as to reject such applications, which have not been duly considered by a domestic tribunal.
2. The single-judge formations and committees will be able to apply the new admissibility criterion only after the Court's Chambers and Grand Chamber develop their case-law on this subject.
3. The new admissibility criterion will not be applied to the applications declared admissible before the entry into force of this Protocol in accordance with the general principle of non-retroactivity of treaties, contained in Article 28 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 23 May 1969.

Moldova

22-08-2005

Until the full establishment of the territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova, the provisions of the Protocol shall be apply only on the territory controlled by the Government of the Republic of Moldova.

Poland

12-10-2006

The Government of the Republic of Poland declares that it interprets the amendments introduced by Protocol No. 14 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, amending the control system of the Convention, in accordance with the provisions of Article 59, paragraph 3, of the said Convention, following the general principle of non-retroactivity of treaties, contained in Article 28 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 23 May 1969.

Russian Federation

18-02-2010

The Russian Federation declares the following:
- the Protocol will be applied in accordance with the understanding contained in the Declaration on "Ensuring the effectiveness of the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights at national and European levels" adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe at its 114th session on 12 May 2004;
- the provisions of the Protocol and their application will be without prejudice to further steps aimed at reaching a full consensus between Member States of the Council of Europe on issues of strengthening the control mechanism of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and of the European Court of Human Rights, including elaboration of a new additional protocol to the Convention based on the proposals of the "Group of Wise Persons" established to consider the issue of the long-term effectiveness of the Convention control mechanism;
- the application of the Protocol will be without prejudice to the process of improving the modalities of functioning of the European Court of Human Rights, first of all to strengthening the stability of its Rules, not excluding supplementary measures to be adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe aimed at reinforcing the control over the use of financial means allocated to the European Court of Human Rights and at ensuring the quality of staff of its Registry, with the understanding that procedural rules relating to examination of applications by the European Court of Human Rights must be adopted in the form of an international treaty subject to ratification or to another form of expression by a State of its consent to be bound by its provisions.
The Russian Federation declares that the application of Article 28, paragraph 3 of the Convention as amended by Article 8 of the Protocol does not exclude the right of a High Contracting Party concerned, if the judge elected in its respect is not a member of the committee, to request that he or she be given the possibility to take the place of one of the members of the committee.
The Russian Federation declares that no provision of the Protocol will be applied prior to its entry into force in accordance with Article 19.