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GROSARU v. ROMANIA JUDGMENT – SEPARATE OPINION
CONCURRING OPINION OF JUDGE ZIEMELE
1. I voted with the majority in finding that there has been a violation of
Article 13 taken in conjunction with Article 3 of Protocol No. 1. I think that
it is important that the Court should further develop its case-law concerning
Article 13 (see my dissenting opinion in Zavoloka v. Latvia, no. 58447/00,
7 July 2009).
2. In the current case, however, the Court in its reasoning under
Article 13 simply referred back to the findings under Article 3 of Protocol
No. 1 and therefore missed the opportunity to clarify the scope of the
obligations that derive from Article 13 of the Convention in circumstances
where human rights problems arise in the context of national elections. The
Court found that the election law was not sufficiently clear as concerns the
provisions on national minorities, that the authorities entrusted to deal with
election disputes were not sufficiently impartial and that no court had ruled
on the interpretation of the law or indeed the very dispute. This led the
Court to find a violation of Article 3. As for the violation of Article 13, the
Court noted its findings concerning the absence of judicial review (see
paragraph 62 of the judgment).
3. It should be noted that until this judgment the Court had considered
the functioning of remedies in respect of alleged election problems under
Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 (see Podkolzina v. Latvia, no. 46726/99, § 37,
ECHR 2002-II). In the above-mentioned Podkolzina case the Court
considered that it was not necessary to examine separately the lack of an
effective remedy from the point of view of Article 13 (ibid., § 45). The
present case marks a change in the Court’s approach, which I can indeed
endorse.
4. The question, however, is what are the nature and scope of the
obligations that derive from Article 13, as this may be relevant in the
circumstances of the case at issue? In other words, what effective remedies
should be in place where violations of the right to free elections are alleged?
In its case-law so far the Court has developed several elements that clarify
the notion of effective remedy under Article 13. The Court has thus
accepted that for a remedy to be effective it need not always be a judicial
remedy or a single remedy. The Court has accepted the possibility of an
aggregate of remedies. Furthermore, the notion of effectiveness is construed
as ensuring either the prevention of the alleged violation, or the provision of
adequate redress, including compensation, for the victim of a violation (see
Kudła v. Poland [GC], no. 30210/96, § 158, ECHR 2000-XI).
5. In the present case, under Article 13 the applicant alleged that there
was no remedy capable of restoring his seat in Parliament, whereas the
Government argued that the composition of the Central Electoral Office
complied with the requirement of being an effective remedy. Since the
Court referred back to its finding regarding the absence of judicial review, it