European Court of Human Rights

Interim Resolution CM/ResDH(2015)157
Execution of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights
Catan and Others against Russian Federation

(Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 24 September 2015
at the 1236th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies)

The Committee of Ministers, under the terms of Article 46 § 2 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which provide that the Committee supervises the execution of final judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (“the Court” below);

Recalling that, in its judgment in the case of Catan and Others, final for almost three years, whilst observing that there was “no evidence of any direct participation by Russian agents in the measures taken against the applicants” nor “any evidence of Russian involvement in or approbation for the “MRT”‘s language policy in general”, the Court nonetheless found that “by virtue of its continued military, economic and political support for the “MRT”, which could not otherwise survive, Russia incurs responsibility under the Convention for the violation of the applicants’ rights to education”;

Recalling the different decisions adopted by the Committee in the course of the supervision of the execution of this judgment and in particular its two interim resolutions – CM/ResDH(2014)184 and CM/ResDH(2015)46;

Insisting anew on the unconditional nature of the obligation to pay just satisfaction and on the need for the Russian Federation to comply with this obligation;

Urged the Russian authorities to explore all appropriate avenues for the full and effective implementation of this judgment; noted that the High Level Conference which will take place in Saint Petersburg on 22‑23 October 2015 could be an opportunity to make progress towards a common understanding as to the scope of the execution measures flowing from this judgment and their modalities;

Decided to resume consideration of this case at their DH meeting in March 2016.