Electra Koutra

Lawyer, Human Rights Strategic Litigator, initiator of change. Spokeswoman for the Action for Human Rights-Pleiades & Lawyers Without Borders - Greece.

[Electra Koutra @electrakoutra]

A Judgment containing some interesting views of the Court. However, it comes 12 years upon we lodged the application. It is very difficult to taste redress after such a long time.

[ECHR CEDH @ECHR_CEDH]

Judgments of 14.10.2025
https://t.co/fW0LBBuQp6
#ECHR #CEDH #ECHRpress

[Adriana Tidona @AdrianaTdn]

Greece’s new legislative proposal negatively impacts people’s rights, at points in open violation of EU law and standards, imparts a punitive direction to the country’s migration policy and seeks to prematurely frontline the EU commission’s return strategy https://t.co/nzfw58VFmi

[Electra Koutra @electrakoutra]

The Hellenic Action for Human Rights "Pleiades", Lawyers Without Borders (GR) and DYYAD - Network for the Support of Human Rights Defenders condemn the #US government @StateDept 's punitive sanctions against UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied #Palestinian Territory, @FranceskAlbs. This is an attack to all Human Rights Defenders and all victims. #Hands_off_FransceskAlbs

[Middle East Eye @MiddleEastEye]

“We will pull the breaks on this system”

In a defiant interview with MEE LIVE’s @mohamedwashere, UN Special Rapporteur @FranceskAlbs says her family is willing to make sacrifices and weather the effects of US sanctions in order to continue fighting for an end to genocide in Gaza

[Margaret Satterthwaite @SRjudgeslawyers]

Je lis avec vive préoccupation des informations inquiétantes selon lesquelles certains parlementaires français se sont opposés à un rappel du respect des décisions de la Cour pénale internationale. https://t.co/QnGCxObLfZ

[Lawyers for Lawyers @L4L_INT]

We join TLSP and others to condemn the arrest of #lawyer Mehmet Pehlivan and call for his immediate release.

#Türkiye must stop interfering with the legitimate work of lawyers and ensure access to legal counsel for all.

👉Read the full statement: https://t.co/K1rbApcgl7

[Amnesty International @amnesty]

Food should never come with gunfire.

Over 500 Palestinians have been killed and 4,000 injured under Israel’s militarized distribution scheme in Gaza.

This is not a humanitarian response.

More than 170 organizations, including @Amnesty, are calling for an end to this deadly system and a return to principled, UN-led humanitarian access.

[Council of Europe @coe]

The Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the 46 Council of Europe member States will hold their annual session tomorrow, to be preceded today by the opening for signature of the Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer.

More information ⬇️ https://t.co/3u6Bz2xIJy

[Council of Europe @coe]

Lawyers are increasingly becoming targets of harassment, intimidation and attacks.

The Council of Europe’s new Convention on the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer requires states to protect them in various ways.

⬇Lawyers are increasingly becoming targets of harassment, intimidation and attacks.

The Council of Europe’s new Convention on the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer requires states to protect them in various ways.

⬇Lawyers are increasingly becoming targets of harassment, intimidation and attacks.

The Council of Europe’s new Convention on the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer requires states to protect them in various ways.

⬇Lawyers are increasingly becoming targets of harassment, intimidation and attacks.

The Council of Europe’s new Convention on the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer requires states to protect them in various ways.

⬇️

[Margaret Satterthwaite @SRjudgeslawyers]

UN special rapporteur slams Trump's sanctions on ICC as 'direct attack' on international justice https://t.co/EJaX1byFOn

[Observatoire international des avocats en danger @ProtectLawyers]

🗓️📢 Save the date: 24 January 2025

The International Day for Lawyers in Danger will be dedicated to Belarusian lawyers. Support them by sharing our tools and taking part in actions near you.

[Margaret Satterthwaite @SRjudgeslawyers]

📢Join us on 24 January to mark the Day of the Endangered Lawyer, calling for an end to the repression of lawyers in Belarus 👇

[Margaret Satterthwaite @SRjudgeslawyers]

Je me réjouis de l’adoption du projet de Convention sur la protection des avocats par le Comité directeur de la coopération juridique du Conseil de l’Europe. @CoE_fr

En accord avec les principes de droit international applicables, ce nouvel instrument juridique vise à garantir que les avocats puissent exercer leur profession sans intimidation, obstacle, harcèlement ou ingérence, renforçant ainsi leur rôle fondamental dans l’accès à la justice et la défense des droits humains.

Une fois ouvert à la signature, j’encourage vivement les États membres, ainsi que les États non membres du Conseil de l’Europe, à ratifier cette Convention. Il s’agit d’une avancée majeure pour la profession juridique et la protection des garanties procédurales dans le monde entier.

Lire le communiqué de presse complet ici: https://t.co/ZpixaWvSop

[Electra Koutra @electrakoutra]

@CCPR_Centre Did the HRCtee mention cases long pending before it on that matter? Because the Secretariat had an unusual way of handling them.

[CCPR Centre @CCPR_Centre]

The #UN #HRCttee 🇺🇳 is about to start the #ICCPR review of the third periodic report of #GREECE 🇬🇷 with the State delegation

🔴 Follow live: https://t.co/MTKVHy3tCz

@UNTreatyBodies @UNHumanRights

[Srdja Popovic @SrdjaPopovic]

Only in #Rwanda : reading my Blueprint for revolution book may send you on trial, accused of plotting against dear leader #Kagame. Time to stand with brave Rwandan activists against injustice! @CANVASNVS @HRF
https://t.co/tFd1t5E2yH

[Electra Koutra @electrakoutra]

Unfortunately I don't share the enthusiasm about this piece of news, because if one pays deeper attention one sees what the Court said: if the applicants were originating from countries that are considered to be safe and were not vulnerable, they could be hosted in a country out of the EU. The safe 3rd country arguments always find me alert, because persons from any country could be in need of international protection, which we in the EU guarantee that can be pursued on EU territory and jurisdiction. This development, in my eyes, is a Trojan Horse that can undermine refugee rights in the EU.

[ECRE @ecre]

🚨Breaking:

🇮🇹#Italy-🇦🇱#Albania deal crumbles!

Rome Tribunal finds that the remaining 12 people should be brought to 🇮🇹Italy.

Relying on a judgment from the Court of Justice of the EU from 4 October.

€1 billion for nothing.

[Electra Koutra @electrakoutra]

Greece has been pressured to have an "effective remedy" for prisoners to complain about their detention conditions. For more than a year upon adoption of what aspired to be considered an effective remedy, there was no decision granting an award, despite the hundreds of appeals. A circular of the Supreme Court Prosecutor urged Judges to issue some positive judgments, so that the authority representing Greece before the CoE and the ECtHR could submit an example showcasing that the problem could be solved and that Greece had, at last, a remedy. For each day spent in detention conditions that constitute inhuman and/or degrading treatment, the Judicial Council started granting in some cases the spectacular amount of 5 euros. Greece alleged to be spending 28 eur per day for each prisoner, which are mostly consumed in the salaries of guards. This sum is in HUGE divergence from the equivalent cost in other EU countries that have no high record of ECHR violations re their prisons. I wrote today to the Council that is now adjudicating such appeals of 4 of my clients and I supported that the practice of granting humiliatingly low awards should be abandoned. Specifically I wrote inter alia that "the adoption of an appeal by which, in view of the restrictions posed by legislation and of the way the law is enforced by the competent Judges, burdens the State with 5 euros per day in case of finding of an art.3 ECHR violation, renders it extremely cost effective for the State to continue horizontally violating the rights of inmates, which inevitably has it as a result that the so called remedial practice of this kind constitutes a landmark for the normalization of the violation and the extension of the horizontal victimization of prisoners in the country".
Meanwhile, the ECtHR appears to have suspended the issuance of a Judgment or Decision in regard to (at least in my cases several hundreds of ) applicants / prisoners who lodged applications in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 and have seen the relevant casefiles having closed for decision or judgment in 2021.
Is it because it intends to "repatriate" the applications once Greece provides a few "examples that the remedy works"?
It remains to be seen how the Court acts on that matter.
We are nevertheless now gathering evidence on the actual effectiveness (or not) of remedies adopted by m/s after pilot judgments of the ECtHR in detention conditions, and would be grateful to receive a PM in case of relevant insights.

[Electra Koutra @electrakoutra]

Just when it became politically relevant, the Court issued a Judgment in a 5 year old case, warning that returns to Greece would probably entail violations of the ECHR. It is of course a very helpful (for refugees and for the Rule of Law) development.
Nevertheless, while returns to Greece might expose the returnee to an art.3 ECHR violation, returns from Greece to Turkey or other countries might not. This is because sometimes according to the conscience of Europe, the oxymoron occured that an EU country could be considered less safe to return to than Turkey or even the asylum seekers' country of origin.

[Dana Schmalz @DanaSchmalz]

Important ruling by @ECHR_CEDH: Germany violated Article 3 of the Convention when returning a Syrian asylum-seeker to Greece in 2018 under an administrative arrangement between the two states. https://t.co/leX340LXVI

[Electra Koutra @electrakoutra]

An utterly illegal stance. However, given the hot socio-political context, it might be wise to bend the jurisdiction for examining asylum claims and promote Belarusian asylum seekers to other EU countries for the examination of their claim using the same law (CEAS).

[POLITICOEurope @POLITICOEurope]

🚨BREAKING: Poland will temporarily bar refugees from claiming asylum in the country after crossing the border from neighboring Belarus, amid warnings that Russia and its allies are using migrants to try to destabilize the EU.

Full story: https://t.co/HzDVETRR1k