Medvedev instructs Ministry of Justice to monitor enforcement of ECtHR's decisions on Russia

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has instructed the Ministry of Justice to monitor enforcement of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as Strasbourg Court by its location. A significant share of these decisions has to do with the affairs of Northern Caucasus.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Russian Federation holds the first place by the number of new complaints filed against it with the ECtHR.

Dmitry Medvedev spoke to the First St Petersburg International Legal Forum and noted that now Russia faces an acute problem of enforcing ECtHR's rulings.

"The Ministry of Justice shall, together with other agencies analyze enforcement of decisions of the Constitutional Court and rulings of the ECtHR; and if necessary, to adopt, change or cancel the respective legislative acts," said the President.

"The monitoring should be directed at improving the law-enforcement practice," the "Interfax" quotes the President as saying.

"The monitoring will result in annual reports; the aim is clear: improvement of the legal system," said Dmitry Medvedev.

In his opinion, it is not a comprehensive, but still "a fairly significant step to feel the nerve of law enforcement and ensure that it is done properly and not turned into something that leads to the opposite result."

For Russia, a member of the Council of Europe, the ECtHR's decisions are binding. Nevertheless, rights defenders criticize Moscow for slow reaction to or ignoring decisions of the ECtHR.