OREANDA-NEWS. February 04, 2010. The Protocol was signed by the Russian Federation in Strasbourg on May 4, 2006.

The Protocol is designed to improve the efficiency of the European Court of Human Rights in light of the sharp increase in the number of complaints following new countries joining the Council of Europe.

Changes envisaged by the Protocol include improving the mechanism for filtering out obviously unacceptable complaints, introducing additional criteria for the admissibility of complaints, increasing the terms of office of the judges of the European Court of Human Rights, and creating the legal framework for having the European Union join the Convention on Human Rights.

Certain provisions of the Protocol caused serious concern to the Russian party and became an obstacle to its ratification in 2006.

Currently the feasibility of ratifying the Protocol is based on a compromise worked out with the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the understanding of certain provisions of the Protocol, that takes into account Russia’s position and is included as clarificatory comments in the text of the Federal Law.