10 May APPLICATION OF GREEK EMS-STUDIOS BEFORE THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNING VIOLATIONS OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS BY THE ANTI-CORONAVIRUS MEASURES

Our law firm submitted an application before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) representing the “Panhellenic Association of Electromyostimulation (EMS) Machine Owners” and two other owners of EMS mini studios complaining for a violation of Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) on the protection of property, as well as Article 13 of the ECHR on the lack of an effective remedy. In this way, the EMS Machine Owners sector becomes the first professional sector in Greece to bring its case before the ECtHR, claiming a violation of its fundamental rights with regard to the property damage caused by the Acts of Legislative Content against the dispersal of the coronavirus in violation of the principles of proportionality and equality. The other institutional address to the ECtHR so far has been made by the Athens Bar Association by means of an intervention in cases of violation of the right of citizens to a fair trial (Article 6 of the ECHR).

Following the rejection of the objections lodged by the Association before the President of the Athens Administrative Court of First Instance on the grounds that the contested Act of Legislative Content had expired, so that they were devoid of substance, the ECtHR is now called upon to decide on the effectiveness or otherwise of the remedy of the objections introduced last March by the Legislative Act. As stated in the application, unlike in other countries which have adopted similar measures, not a single judgment has been delivered in Greece upholding the objections to the exclusion, in whole or in part, of certain persons affected by the provisions, rendering that remedy ineffective.