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The Russian State Duma on Friday ratified a long- delayed key reform proposal of the European Human Rights Convention, opening the prospect of the reform being put in place, DPA reported.
The Interfax agency reported that the Duma approved Protocol 14, a reform intended to enable judges on the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights to handle cases more quickly.
The vote was 392 in favour out of the 450 votes cast in the Duma.
Russia had long held out in approving the protocol and became the last of the 47 members of the Council of Europe to approve it. Protocol 14 with the proposed reforms was first presented for debate in April 2004.
In 2006 the State Duma had refused to ratify the protocol, charging the court had issued politically-motivated rulings aimed against Moscow.
Russia has often been fined by the Strasbourg-based court for human rights violations in, for example, the conflict in Chechnya.
In the meantime, Moscow and the Council of Europe ironed out their differences, with some changes agreed on, including a guarantee of a Russian judge being on a panel handling a case against Russia as well as on a follow-up group which supervises adherence to a ruling.
The Duma's action follows a call by President Dmitry Medvedev to the legislature urging the lawmakers to approve the protocol Medvedev ultimately aims to reform Russia's own justice system to achieve a better adherence to human rights in the country.
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