Prominent Bulgarian human rights activist and lawyer Yonko Grozev was elected as judge to the European Court of Human Rights with an impressive majority of the members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The court is an institution of justice, established with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which entered into force in Bulgaria on 7 September 1992.

“The national judge has several roles,” Mr. Grozev explains. “Besides his participation as an equal judge, he has to explain national legislation to his colleagues. Many cases concern national law matters. This court cannot refer to national law in its work, but it has to understand how it works. The other significant role of the national judge is to support national institutions within the Convention’s implementation. The feedback that this cooperation works within is essential, in my opinion, so that we don’t end up with verdicts. This is the main mechanism that defends the rights of the individual in an effective manner.”

According to Yonko Grozev the ECHR is often taken for some panacea. It cannot judge in general and cannot implement national law. It can only enforce a restricted number of rights, guaranteed under the Convention. The greatest number of complaints comes from the former USSR states and Eastern Europe. The decisions are often waited for too long. “Obviously there is no way a court with 47 judges to provide justice for the entire region, spreading from Vladivostok to Reykjavik. We are talking here about 800 million people that are under the jurisdiction of this court,” the new Bulgarian judge is convinced. Five or six years ago a huge number of complaints were sent from Bulgaria to the ECHR, with expectations beyond the borders of its jurisdiction, Yonko Grozev goes on to say.

“The expectations are that the court will review decisions of the national courts that are wrong, according to the applicants. This institution defends a limited number of rights, such as fair trial, or the right to ownership. There have been many cases, related to restitution. We faced problems, related to the execution of court decisions for many years. I myself have worked on many cases, concerning freedom of speech. I don’t think that it will ever stop being an up-to-date issue. We see such matters occurring via new online media. Bulgaria definitely has a problem with freedom of speech. It is not so much of a problem of persecuting this basic right in any legislative manner, but it is related to the funding of media. Practically the main threat to media freedom in Bulgaria right now goes through ownership and the control over the editorial policy by the owner. This is the weak point that still looks for the best way to improve the environment.”

Lawyer Yonko Grozev graduated from Sofia University back in 1994 and then had his master degree in law with Harvard University, the USA. In the period 1995 – 2005 he headed the law program of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee. He received an international award for human rights activism by the American Association of Jurists. In February 2013 Yonko Grozev took over the legal defense of Pussy Riot. The Russian punk band had submitted an official complaint against Russia at the ECHR.

“It’s not a matter of speech, aimed against the religious rights of the other people,” Yonko Grozev says on the case. “We are talking here about a purely political action in the context of a radical action by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church – taking a side at elections and the support for a certain candidate. It’s not a question of involving the Church into something it didn’t want, nor was it an attack against purely religious practices, customs and rituals. In cases of attacks against purely religious beliefs and the practicing of a religion, the practice of the ECHR is quite restrictive, regarding freedom of speech. The Pussy Riot action was in the context of polls. It responded to a concrete statement of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, supporting a candidate at the elections. The debate was purely political and hence the reaction. The case is closed, all the stances have been presented, we expect a decision,” the human rights activist explains.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev