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V.
CASELOAD OF THE CHAMBER
During the year
4,177 applications were registered (more than in any other
year) which brought the total number of applications
registered at the Chamber to 12,659 by the end of 2002. On
average, then, the Chamber received 348 applications every
month during 2002. A total of 1,878 applications have been
resolved through decisions of the Chamber. That left 10,781
applications pending before the Chamber by the end of 2002.
During the first three months of 2003, already 787 new
applications were received and 350 new cases resolved.
In 2002, the Chamber held a total of 11 plenary sessions and
11 sessions of each of its two panels (no session is held
during August).
During its sessions, normally held during the first full week
of every month, the Chamber considers the cases before it,
both in private deliberations and public hearings. At the
sessions held in 2002, the Chamber issued a total of 564 final
and binding decisions which included decisions on
admissibility, merits, strike-outs, requests for review,
decisions on review and decisions on further remedies
resolving 675 individual applications/cases. (One decision
issued by the Chamber may resolve more than one individual
application/case, as the Chamber has the discretion to join
cases if appropriate. Also, several decisions may be issued
regarding one application -- e.g. a decision on admissibility
and merits, a decision on request for review and a decision on
review for one case).
Decisions on admissibility and merits, decisions on review and
decisions on further remedies are publicly delivered each
month after they have been adopted (voted on), while all other
types of decisions are adopted by the Chamber, but not
publicly delivered. Public deliveries take place at the
Cantonal Court in Sarajevo. (In a public delivery, some
sections of the decisions are read aloud by the President or
Vice-President of the Chamber. The agents appear on behalf of
the respondent Parties and often the applicants are present in
person). The full texts of the decisions are available to the
public after the hearing.
In the decisions on admissibility and merits, issues
considered in 2002 included property matters, freedom of
expression, expulsion of aliens and nationals, employment
discrimination, age discrimination, length of proceedings,
non-enforcement of court decisions, fair trial, ill-treatment
in detention, and the lack of effective remedies. In addition
to adopting and delivering decisions each session, the judges
also deliberated on several hundreds of other cases in various
stages of procedure throughout the year. Hundreds of requests
for provisional measures were also considered and decided.
The Chamber held four public hearings in 2002 during which
testimony was heard and evidence received in 10 cases pending
before the Chamber. The issues concerned freedom of
expression, freedom of religion, right to private and family
life, right to liberty and security of person, right to a fair
trial, the prohibition of expulsion of aliens and nationals,
right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions and discrimination.
Three of the hearings were held in Sarajevo and one in Travnik.
As of April 2003, the Chamber had issued decisions in all but
two of the cases.
The chart below illustrates the increase in applications
received and cases resolved over a period of 7 years. Annex F
attached to this Report provides a dramatic visual
presentation of this information. Annex E specifically shows
the types and numbers of decisions taken by the Chamber
through 31 December 2002.
Note: In the first 3 months of 2003, the Chamber registered
787 new applications and resolved 350 cases bringing the total
number of applications registered with the Chamber through 31
March 2003 to 13,446 and the total number of cases resolved to
2,228.
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