PART 1: Overview of the Concil of Europe, the Convention and the Court the Court to assist the single judges. This filtering section has been established in order to reduce the backlog of cases that are clearly inadmissible.29 1.6.3 The Committees Committees of three judges are established within each Section for a period of twelve months, by rotation among its members.30 They deal with cases that are inadmissible and do not need further examination. In addition, Committees also decide cases on the merits if there is already well-established case law on the matter.31 Committees cannot deal with Inter-State cases. Decisions by Committee are final and cannot be appealed. Such decisions must however be taken unanimously; if there is no unanimity amongst the three judges, the Committee will refer the case to a Chamber to decide on admissibility and, if applicable, to rule on the merits. 1.4.4 Single Judge Formation Applications that are manifestly inadmissible are referred to the single judge formation. According to Article 26 of the Convention and Rules 27A and 52A, a single judge can declare inadmissible or strike out an application where such a decision can be taken without further examination. Typically, cases decided by a single judge are cases that clearly do not fulfil the admissibility requirements such as the time limit of six months, or the exhaustion of domestic remedies. A single judge may also strike out a case of the Court’s list of cases when the applicant, for instance, withdraws the application. Single judges are assisted by non-judicial rapporteurs who are usually experienced lawyers from the Registry. 1.5 Instruments of the Court 1.5.1 The European Convention on Human Rights As pointed out earlier, the Convention entered into force on 3 September 1953. It represents the minimum human rights standards to which European States could agree to more than 50 years ago and is primarily concerned with the protection of civil and political rights, rather than economic, social, or cultural rights. The Convention consists of three Sections and a total of 59 Articles. The rights and freedoms are listed in Section 1 (Articles 1-18); Section 2 (Articles 19–51) deals with the establishment of the Court as well as its duties and powers; Section 3 (Articles 52-59) contains miscellaneous provisions concerning such issues as 29 30 31 For more information on the Filtering Section see: http://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=court/howitworks (last visited 2014). See also Rule 27 § 2 of the Rules of Court. Article 28 § 1 a) and b) of the Convention. 27