European Court of Human Rights cases on Occupation of Baltic States

European Court of Human Rights cases on Occupation of Baltic States are landmark rulings by the European Court of Human Rights, which concern activities of the USSR including military and security services in the occupied Baltic states between 1940 and 1991.

Admission of the states of the former Soviet Union block into the Council of Europe in the second part of the 90s among other issues brought into the European Court of Human Rights arguments relating to the question of the legality of Baltic states' membership in the Soviet Union.

On 16 March 2006 the Grand Chamber of the Court made the following statement in the case of Tatjana Ždanoka vs Latvia (paragraph 119 of its judgment):

Latvia, together with the other Baltic States, lost its independence in 1940 in the aftermath of the partition of central and eastern Europe agreed by Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union by way of the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, an agreement contrary to the generally recognised principles of international law. The ensuing annexation of Latvia by the Soviet Union was orchestrated and conducted under the authority of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the Communist Party of Latvia (CPL) being a satellite branch of the CPSU.

Subsequently to Ždanoka, a number of other judgments and decisions were adopted by Chambers (smaller formations) of the Court in cases regarding issues ranging from the restriction of political rights of active Soviet collaborators to criminal conviction for genocide, whereby the Court reiterated the conclusion that illegal occupation of Baltic States by the USSR had taken place in 1940 (see Kolk vs Estonia, Penart vs Estonia). In Penart, the Court declared inadmissible an application by a former USSR internal security service operative Vladimir Penart, convicted on charges of crimes against humanity by Estonian court for killing "a person hiding in the woods" most probably a member of Forest Brothers militant anti-Soviet movement in 1953. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/europe/2211029.stm BBC News] ] The court stated following:

The Court notes, first, that Estonia lost its independence as a result of the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (also known as “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact”), concluded on 23 August 1939, and the secret additional protocols to it. Following an ultimatum to set up Soviet military bases in Estonia in 1939, a large-scale entry of the Soviet army into Estonia took place in June 1940. The lawful government of the country was overthrown and Soviet rule was imposed by force. The totalitarian communist regime of the Soviet Union conducted large-scale and systematic actions against the Estonian population, including, for example, the deportation of about 10,000 persons on 14 June 1941 and of more than 20,000 on 25 March 1949. After the Second World War, tens of thousands of persons went into hiding in the forests to avoid repression by the Soviet authorities; part of those in hiding actively resisted the occupation regime. According to the data of the security organs, about 1,500 persons were killed and almost 10,000 arrested in the course of the resistance movement of 1944-1953. Interrupted by the German occupation in 1941-1944, Estonia remained occupied by the Soviet Union until its restoration of independence in 1991. Accordingly, Estonia as a state was temporarily prevented from fulfilling its international commitments. [ [http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int////tkp197/viewhbkm.asp?action=open&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649&key=26698&sessionId=1478178&skin=hudoc-en&attachment=true Text of Penart ruling on the site of the ECHR] ]

The court's rulings appear favorable to several aspects, which are important with regard to restoration of the Baltic states including the legal continuity doctrine. [http://www.iuridicum.ee/public/files/Malksoo%20-%20vene.pdf Russian translation of the book of dr (iur) Lauri Mälksoo "Illegal Annexation and State Continuity: The Case of the Incorporation of the baltic States by the USSR", Leiden - Boston: Brill. ISBN 9041121773 ] The rulings confirmed that the USSR committed crimes in the illegally occupied Baltic states such as Soviet deportations from Estonia and in case Tatjana Ždanoka vs Latvia drew parallels between legal treatment of the German Waffen SS and hardline elements of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. [ [http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int////tkp197/viewhbkm.asp?action=open&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649&key=59440&sessionId=1528844&skin=hudoc-en&attachment=true Text of Ždanoka (final) decision on the site of ECHR] ]

In Russian Federation rulings of the court caused negative reaction among politicians and were characterized as "politicized." [ [http://news.ntv.ru/news/NewsPrint.jsp?nid=87999 NTV News "Российскую делегацию ПАСЕ не испугали сложные вопросы", Boris Gryzlov] ]

In the Baltic states the court rulings were accepted within the general lines of the Western non-recognition policy (see Stimson Doctrine). Notably Estonian security police Kaitsepolitseiamet emphasized the importance of the decisions in its 2006 yearbook. [ [http://www.regnum.ru/english/834998.html Russian Regnum news agency] ]

References

ee also

*1953 Baltic States Investigation by the US House of Representatives