For the first time in the last 10 years, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) received the lowest number of applications against the Republic of Moldova – only 363 applications were filed in 2024. There has also been a significant reduction in the number of judgments issued by the ECtHR in Moldovan cases – only 17 last year, representing a “positive record” for the last six years.

In 2024, Moldova was no longer among the top countries with the highest number of applications per capita, ranking 20th out of the 46 member states of the Council of Europe. However, Moldovans have applied to the ECtHR three times more frequently than the European average.

The findings are contained in an analytical note of the Legal Resources Centre from Moldova (LRCM), presented on Monday, February 3, 2025. The data summarized by the LRCM is based on the analysis of the ECtHR activity for the previous year, as informed in the European Court’s report, as well as on the study of ECtHR jurisprudence in Moldovan cases.

“In some areas, Moldova has improved its positions in the rankings for 2024 compared to 2023. For example, last year Moldovans addressed the ECtHR three times more often than the European average, whereas previously they had addressed 6.5 times more frequently. However, there are no positive developments regarding the most frequent types of violations found by the ECtHR in Moldovan cases, which recur from one year to another,” stated Carolina Bagrin, Programme Director within the LRCM.

Based on all judgments and decisions handed down by the end of last year, the Republic of Moldova was obliged to pay compensation amounting to 22,976,120 EUR. Of this sum, more than 162,000 EUR represents compensation awarded in 2024, which means twice less compared to 2023.

“From a legal point of view and in terms of their impact, the most important judgments in the past year concern the inadequate investigation of ill-treatment, of domestic violence, the lack of an effective remedy to defend the rights of individuals, as well as the discriminatory attitude of the authorities based on gender and disability,” underlined Daniel Goinic, Human Rights Programme Director within the LRCM.

The ECtHR received a total of 28,800 applications in 2024, the lowest in the last ten years. More than 40% of all applications lodged at the ECtHR were directed against four states: Turkey, Ukraine, Romania and Poland, the Republic of Moldova ranking 20th in this respect. The ECtHR has handed down 1,102 judgments, of which around 50% were against three states: Russia, Ukraine and Turkey. At the other end of the scale, no convictions have been handed down against Sweden, Ireland or Estonia.

By December 31, 2024, over the 27 years since Moldova ratified the European Convention on Human Rights, the Court has issued 616 judgments in Moldovan cases, ranking 11th out of 46 Council of Europe member states in terms of the total number of judgments. In this respect, Moldova is ahead of the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands, which joined the European Convention on Human Rights long before Moldova and have a much larger population than Moldova.