Latvia appealed to the European Court of Human Rights with a request for permission to intervene in the case "Ukraine v. Russia".
This is stated in the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia.
This is the first time that Latvia exercised its rights under paragraph 2 of Article 36 of the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and requested permission to enter an interstate case as a third party.
Now the ECtHR has to decide whether to grant Latvia such a right. If the decision is positive, Latvia will be able to submit observations on the interpretation of the provisions of the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in this case.
- On June 23, 2022, Ukraine filed a lawsuit against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), accusing the Russian Federation of a military invasion and targeted attacks on the civilian population, which violates international law.
- Interstate cases at the ECtHR are an extraordinary measure, they are brought in extremely rare cases. This usually occurs in situations where there are serious concerns about systemic and persistent human rights violations, including mass atrocities and human rights violations during armed conflicts.