Month: December 2025
Council of Europe Ministers failed Greece’s minority associations snubbing identical concerns by its Secretariat and GHM
On 4 December 2025, the examination by the Commitee of Ministers of the (non-)execution of the judgments in the group Bekir-Ousta and Others v. Greece was concluded with a decision that, one again, put off until the Greek calends the restitutio in integrum for the applicant associations 18 years after the leading judgment.
The Commitee of Ministers approved the Greek Government‘s choice to adopt, among the five recommendations of its Committee of Experts, the one calling for the introduction of a general clause explicitly requiring that the grounds for the registration and dissolution of associations be interpreted in accordance with international human rights standards, including the Court’s case-law.
As the Secretariat noted though “based on the current case-law of domestic courts, the anticipated practical impact of this measure, remains uncertain. Its success will hinge on how domestic courts apply the new provision, the contents of which are as yet unknown... In order to assist domestic courts in interpreting the amended provision in line with the Court’s case-law, thereby contributing to the effective execution of this group without further setbacks, the authorities may wish to consider ensuring that the explanatory memorandum accompanying the draft legislation clearly sets out the background of this group and the intended purpose of the proposed amendment to ensure full execution and prevent similar violations. This will also be important for the applicant associations, which may seek registration anew under the amended provision and should be protected from restrictive judicial interpretation (see in this regard Rule 9.2 submission from the Greek Helsinki Monitor, which inter alia argues that it remains unclear whether the applicant associations will be able to rely on the amended provision to obtain restitutio in integrum).”
The concluding decision “to resume examination of this group of cases at their 1563rd meeting (June 2026) (DH) to review the progress achieved,” is the best admission that the Committee of Ministers no longer calls for the prompt restitutio in integrum by summarily canceling the dissolution or the rejection of registration of the applciant associations. It will be satisfied by any, however small, progress achieved by June 2026.
This will most likely mean just the introduction of the new legislative amendment with some explanatory report, nine years after the introduction of the previous 2017 legislative amendment.
As expected by GHM, the 2017 amendment failed to secure the restitutio in integrum. GHM considers very likely that the results of the forthcoming new amendment will be the same, which is why it concludes that the Council of Europe Ministers once again failed Greece’s minority associations.
Greek Helsinki Monitor - Ελληνικο Παρατηρητηριο των Συμφωνιων του Ελσινκι 