The Spanish magistrate of the European Court of Human Rights, María Elósegui, appeared at the X Labor Conference held last Thursday and Friday, October 12 and 13, in Lanzarote. Elósegui is a judge of the Strasbourg Court, the body of the Council of Europe, which ensures that the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is protected. A total of 46 countries are represented in it, with one judge for each State that is part of it. Among them, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, France or Spain.
Cases that reach the European Court of Human Rights
María Elósegui was the first Spanish judge to reach the European Court of Human Rights and firmly defends the work of her Spanish colleagues. In addition, she reports that her Court receives a hundred lawsuits a month from the Spanish State, which translates into approximately 1,200 a year. "In almost all Spanish courts have done things well and the resources are inadmissible. We have everything, it is not that one thing is more than another." For this European magistrate, the ECtHR is "very accessible" and "democratic", so lawsuits arrive from people of "all social levels."
She also points out that you can go "without the need for great preparations or having super-specialist lawyers. The judge assures that lawsuits from many ordinary citizens reach the Strasbourg Court. Among them, a case of a middle-class family that was evicted in Fuengirola and sued before the European Court of Human Rights because it had not been notified at the appropriate address. So the Chamber agreed with those affected.
"I want to speak out in favor of the judges, we have a very well-trained judiciary, very professional. Of the 46 countries, we are one of those with the fewest lawsuits. We are number 30 out of 46, that is, there are 30 above us with many more lawsuits and judgments of non-compliance with human rights," Elósegui says.
After the health pandemic, more lawsuits have reached these European courts, located in the city of Strasbourg, in relation to patients' rights or informed consent. Before reaching this European Court, María Elósegui worked on several Bioethics committees of the Autonomous Community of Aragon and in several hospitals.
The Canary Islands are the point of greatest reception of migrants in Spain. However, the lack of permanent resources means that, on occasions, there is not enough space to accommodate them and they have to sleep in improvised spaces. For example, it is common for mattresses and tents to be set up on the Puerto Naos dock for migrants to sleep when the CATE is full. Last week, at least two women, a baby and a four-year-old child slept in this improvised resource. Can the lack of permanent resources constitute a violation of human rights?
"I can answer from the point of view of our Court because other things are not our responsibility. These types of issues have to be resolved at the state level, let's say, and at least what I can say is that no lawsuit related to this type of issue has reached the European Court from Spain. What we also have to deal with are individual damages, that is, there are other things that the legislator or social services have to do, but they are not the responsibility of a judge," reveals Elósegui.
María Elósegui narrates one of the resolutions of her Chamber in relation to the reception of migrants. The magistrate of the Strasbourg Court explains a case of a woman, an asylum seeker, who lived in France, but who was responsible for applying for asylum in Spain because it was the country in which she had entered. "Until people, for example, are expelled, there must be a minimum of conditions, especially if there are minors, but these are specific issues. She did not want to leave France, so she was not acting legally either, but well, she did not go to the flight that was put on for her to come to Spain and be able to apply for asylum, according to the Dublin Agreements," she continues, "my Court said that it must be guaranteed that the minor has minimum conditions in that process, but that the first steps must be taken in Spain."
"In Spain, in general, things are done much better than in other countries," says the Spanish magistrate at the European Court of Human Rights.
Trial for despising the national flag
The European Court of Human Rights ruled a few months ago that Spain should compensate citizen Pablo Fragoso for having been fined in a "disproportionate" manner for insulting the Spanish flag. For magistrate María Elósegui, the press echoes these sentences that are "collateral issues of freedom of expression." The magistrate assures that this issue is temporary and does not affect citizens. In this sense, she relates that the country is "a State of Law, very developed, with many freedoms." The judge assures that "there is no problem of freedom of expression, I dare say, there are other problems, such as ordinary ones and that we are resolving and yet, it is not reflected because it is not media-friendly."
The jump to the Melilla fence
María Elósegui was part of the grand chamber that resolved in 2020 the ruling on one of the jumps to the Melilla fence and endorsed hot returns, changing the previous ruling that the Court had issued. This judicial resolution dictated that Spain had not violated the agreement by expelling two migrants back to Morocco after having entered Spanish territory.
"When there are attempts to enter illegally, with the use of force, at night and with everything prepared instead of using the official entrances, which there are, because the State had to prove that there are spaces where you can apply for asylum, then using another way cannot be protected by our agreement," Elósegui defends before La Voz.
"Spain makes a tremendous effort, the Red Cross that attends to people too, although, suddenly, waves arrive that cannot be controlled, that the State cannot control, does not have the means and come from third countries for which Spain is not responsible," says the magistrate of the ECtHR.
