September 2023 marked the 70th anniversary of the entry into force of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). During this period, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)  has dealt with well over one million applications and handed down more than 26,000 judgments and many thousands of decisions. 

Although the total number of applications pending at the ECtHR is high (68,450), this has significantly decreased (by 8%) compared to the close of 2022 (74,650). The total number of decided applications in 2023 was 38,260 (down 3% from 39,570 in 2022). 6,931 applications concluded in a judgment, of which 6,386 were decided by Committees. 25,834 applications were dealt with by single-judge formations. The Grand Chamber issued 13 judgments and one decision on admissibility. Over 75% of pending applications concern the same five States as 2022. They are Türkiye (23,397, 34.2%), Russian Federation (12,453, 18.2%), Ukraine (8,737, 12.8%), Romania (4,171, 6.1%) and Italy (2,743, 4%).  

The shift of caseload from Chambers to Committees is reflected in this year’s statistics, as there has been a 48% decrease in pending applications assigned to a Chamber (18,150) since 1st January 2023. There is also a corresponding increase of 33% in the number of applications pending before Committees (46,150). In the same period, the number of pending applications assigned to a single judge decreased by 13% to around 4,150. The number of applications struck out or declared inadmissible totalled 31,329. Of these, the applications struck out by a single judge, by Committees, and by Chambers amount to 25,834 applications, 5344 applications and 151 applications, respectively. The total number of judgements delivered by the ECtHR in 2023 was 1014, including 319 by the Chambers and 682 by Committees of three judges.

By the end of 2023, based on the opening note from the President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the Annual report of 2023, the number of applications pending against Italy at the ECtHR is at 2,743, which is down from the previous year’s 3,550 cases.

In 2023, the ECtHR received a total of 1,957 valid individual applications alleging violations of rights enshrined in the ECHR by Italy. Among these, 510 were communicated to the Italian government, 117 were decided by a judge, 2,549 applications were declared inadmissible or struck out, 164 were terminated by friendly settlements, and 247 by unilateral declarations. The ECtHR also received 54 requests for interim measures under Article 39 of the Rules of Court, of which 29 were found to be out of scope, and 16 were refused; only five of them were granted by the ECtHR.

Italy received 52 judgments in 2023. Of these, 48 judgments found at least one violation of the rights enshrined in the ECHR, while three were deemed as having no violations, and one application was resolved through a friendly settlement and was stricken out. 

The applications of 2023 having Italy as the responding State claimed violations of the following rights: one violation of Article 2 ECHR (right to life); 9 cases of inhuman or degrading treatments under Article 3 ECHR; one concerning the lack of effective investigation under Article 3 ECHR; 14 concerning the right to personal freedom and security under Article 5 ECHR; 21 about Article 6 ECHR, of which 8 concerning the right to a fair trial, 8 on the excessive length of proceedings and 5 on the execution of a judgment; 3 concerning the right to effective remedy under Article 13 ECHR; and one concerning violations of articles other than the first 14 of ECHR. 16 applications regarded the protection of property under Article 1, Protocol 1; 10 applications concerned the right to private and family life under Article 8 ECHR.