Resolution CM/ResDH(2023)272
Execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights
Two cases against the United Kingdom
(Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 21 September 2023
at the 1475th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies)
Application No.
Case
Judgment of
Final on
37715/97
SHANAGHAN
04/05/2001
04/08/2001
43098/09
MCCAUGHEY AND OTHERS
16/07/2013
16/10/2013
The Committee of Ministers, under the terms of Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which provides that the Committee supervises the execution of final judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter “the Convention” and “the Court”,
Having regard to the final judgments transmitted by the Court to the Committee in these cases and to the procedural violations of Article 2 established, in Shanaghan, on account of shortcomings in the proceedings for investigating the death of the applicant’s next-of-kin and, in McCaughey and Others, the excessive delay in the inquest proceedings;
Recalling the respondent State’s obligation, under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention, to abide by all final judgments in cases to which it has been a party and that this obligation entails, over and above the payment of any sums awarded by the Court, the adoption by the authorities of the respondent State, where required:
- of individual measures to put an end to violations established and erase their consequences so as to achieve as far as possible restitutio in integrum; and
- of general measures preventing similar violations;
Having invited the government of the respondent State to inform the Committee of the measures taken to comply with the above-mentioned obligation;
Having examined the information provided by the government indicating the individual measures adopted in order to give effect to the judgments including the information provided regarding the payment of the just satisfaction awarded by the Court (see document DH-DD(2023)774);
Considering that the question of individual measures was resolved, given that
- in the Shanaghan case the investigation by the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland has been completed during which a referral was made of two police officers to the Director of Public Prosecutions (Northern Ireland) who decided not to prosecute; and it had been open to the applicant to bring a judicial review of the DPP(NI)’s decision that no prosecution should be brought;
- in the McCaughey and Others case, the inquest terminated in 2012 with a detailed narrative verdict, the conduct and findings of which were upheld on appeal; and noting that the Court declared a follow up application inadmissible (see Gribben v. the United Kingdom (dec.) No. 28864/18, 15 January 2022) considering that “the inquest was undoubtedly thorough, with a scope which extended beyond matters directly causative of the deaths and which encompassed broader questions relating to the planning and scope of the operation”;
Recalling that the question of general measures required in response to the shortcomings found by the Court in these judgments continues to be examined within the framework of the McKerr group of cases also in the light of the Court’s findings these cases, and that the closure of these cases therefore in no way prejudges the Committee’s evaluation of the general measures;
DECLARES that it has exercised its functions under Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention in these cases,
CONCLUDES that the necessary individual measures have been adopted;
DECIDES to continue to supervise the adoption of the necessary general measures in the McKerr group of cases;
DECIDES to close the examination of these cases.