36
MAMATKULOV AND ASKAROV v. TURKEY JUDGMENT
enjoy at the international level a real right of action to assert the rights and
freedoms to which they are directly entitled under the Convention.
123. In this context, the Court notes that in the light of the general
principles of international law, the law of treaties and international case-law,
the interpretation of the scope of interim measures cannot be dissociated
from the proceedings to which they relate or the decision on the merits they
seek to protect. The Court reiterates in that connection that Article 31 § 1 of
the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties provides that treaties must be
interpreted in good faith in the light of their object and purpose (see
paragraph 39 above), and also in accordance with the principle of
effectiveness.
124. The Court observes that the ICJ, the Inter-American Court of
Human Rights, the Human Rights Committee and the Committee against
Torture of the United Nations, although operating under different treaty
provisions to those of the Court, have confirmed in their reasoning in recent
decisions that the preservation of the asserted rights of the parties in the face
of the risk of irreparable damage represents an essential objective of interim
measures in international law. Indeed it can be said that, whatever the legal
system in question, the proper administration of justice requires that no
irreparable action be taken while proceedings are pending (see, mutatis
mutandis, Soering, cited above, p. 35, § 90).
It has previously stressed the importance of having remedies with
suspensive effect when ruling on the obligations of the State with regard to
the right to an effective remedy in deportation or extradition proceedings.
The notion of an effective remedy under Article 13 of the Convention
requires a remedy capable of preventing the execution of measures that are
contrary to the Convention and whose effects are potentially irreversible.
Consequently, it is inconsistent with Article 13 for such measures to be
executed before the national authorities have examined whether they are
compatible with the Convention (see Čonka v. Belgium, no. 51564/99, § 79,
ECHR 2002-I). It is hard to see why this principle of the effectiveness of
remedies for the protection of an individual's human rights should not be an
inherent Convention requirement in international proceedings before the
Court, whereas it applies to proceedings in the domestic legal system.
125. Likewise, under the Convention system, interim measures, as they
have consistently been applied in practice (see paragraph 104 above), play a
vital role in avoiding irreversible situations that would prevent the Court
from properly examining the application and, where appropriate, securing to
the applicant the practical and effective benefit of the Convention rights
asserted. Accordingly, in these conditions a failure by a respondent State to
comply with interim measures will undermine the effectiveness of the right
of individual application guaranteed by Article 34 and the State's formal
undertaking in Article 1 to protect the rights and freedoms set forth in the
Convention.
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