A two-day event on harmonisation of the domestic courts practice in relation to the European Convention on Human Rights was organised on the 11-12 April 2017 in Ohrid. This activity was organised within the Project “Increasing judicial capacity to safeguard human rights and combat ill-treatment and impunity”, as a part of the “Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey”.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the four appeal courts in the country, including the respective Presidents and Heads of the civil and criminal departments of all courts. Also, the Director of the Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors “Pavel Shatev” and the Deputy President of the Judicial Council actively participated at this event.

First part of the meeting focused on the importance of harmonising national case law, referring to good practices of the Council of Europe in relation to harmonisation process. In addition, an overview of the most relevant decisions of the European Court of Human Rights related to inconsistent case-law was provided, followed by fruitful discussion among participants.

Furthermore, two parallel sessions were held on harmonisation of the practice of civil and criminal law departments, based on materials previously disseminated among the four appeal courts on disputed questions. At the end of the two days discussions participants have reached and presented the conclusions, which will be accordingly disseminated to lower courts.

These joint meetings on harmonisation of the domestic court practice should be intensified and be formally arranged to deal directly with issues of harmonisation, ensuring dialogue between courts of all instances at national and international (regional) levels. In that light, the Council of Europe is supporting judicial dialog on national case law harmonisation among its member states. This Project will support additional two events, sharing the latest developments on the European Court of Human Rights relevant case-law and its standards that refer to inconsistency.