Some Guarantees Regarding Criminal Proceedings Applicable to Non-Governmental Organizations: Protocol No. 7 to the European Convention on Human Rights
Abstrakt
Th e paper deals with the rights and guarantees of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in criminal proceedings under Protocol No. 7 to the European Convention on Human Rights. Th e author comes to the conclusion that the Convention has an autonomous concept of the term “NGO” which includes a whole range of legal persons, from non-profi t making organizations to business corporations.
In its case law the European Court gives a special connotation to “criminal matters” and, therefore, applies Articles 2, 3 and 4 of Protocol No. 7 as well as to administrative and disciplinary proceedings. Analysis of the practise of the Court shows that it did not issue any judgment in which a member state was held liable for a violation of guarantees in the criminal procedures under Protocol No. 7 with respect to NGOs.
Such a situation can be explained, fi rstly, by the fact that corporate criminal liability is a new phenomenon in the doctrine of criminal law, and many contracting parties have adopted legislation on the subject only a few years ago. Secondly, those states which have a long tradition of criminal liability of legal persons, such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, did not ratify this Protocol.
Th irdly, those countries holding the fi rst and the second place in the number of applications submitted to the Court, namely Russia and Turkey, do not possess national legislation on the criminal liability of legal entities. Nevertheless, the situation is to be changed, as Ukraine adopted the legislation at issue in May 2013, and a draft law on corporate criminal liability was elaborated in the Russian Federation.