includes not only their metropolitan territories in Europe itself, but also a number of other territories to which the Con- vention has been extended by specific declaration of Con- tracting States in accordance with Article 63. The Nether- lands made such a declaration in respect of Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles; the United Kingdom did likewise in respect of 42 dependent territories, most of which have since become independent, whereupon the Convention has ceased to apply to them. 1
2. The Commission may deal with any alleged violation by a Contracting Party of one of the rights set forth in the Convention and the Protocols Nos. 1 and 4. Applications concerning other human rights cannot be accepted.
3. The Commission may deal with all matters sub- sequent to the entry into force of the Convention in respect of the Contracting Parties concerned. This means, generally speaking, that events which happened before 1953, when the Convention entered into force, fall outside the com- petence of the Commission.
4. The Commission may deal with applications sub- mitted by a High Contracting Party (Article 24 of the Con- vention). It may also consider complaints by a person, non- governmental organisation or group of individuals (Article 25) if the State complained of has made an express declar- ation recognising the Commission's competence to receive such applications.
In cases of inter-State applications, a State is entitled to allege a violation of the Convention not only with regard to its own nationals; it may refer to the Commission alleged violations committed against individuals who are not its nationals. This happened in the second application lodged
1. On 1st May 1975 the Convention still applied to the following overseas territories: Bailiwick of Guernsey, Bailiwick of Jersey, Bermuda, British Honduras, British Solomon Islands, Brunei, Cayman Islands, Channel Islands, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Gibraltar, Leeward Islands, Isle of Man, Mauritius, St. Helena, Seychelles, Turks and Caicos Islands, Windward Islands, Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles.
It is also to be noted that the right of individual petition to the Commis- sion has been extended by the Netherlands to Surinam, and by the United Kingdom to the following non-metropolitan territories: Bailiwick of Guernsey, Bermuda, Belize, British Solomon Islands, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Montserrat, St. Helena, Seychelles, Turks and Caicos Islands, Dominica, St. Lucia.
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by the Greek Government against the United Kingdom in con- nection with the situation in Cyprus, while the island was still a British colony, and again in the Austrian application against Italy, in which Austria referred to the Commission a case involving six young men, German-speaking Italian nationals, from the region of Upper Adige/South Tyrol.
By 1st May 1975, the Commission had received 14 inter- State applications. Other than the two already mentioned, these were the first application filed by the Government of Greece against the Government of the United Kingdom in 1956 concerning the situation in Cyprus; four applications filed against the Government of Greece in September 1967 by the Governments of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands; the Governments of Iceland, Belgium and Luxembourg expressed their support for the action thus taken by the four governments; a second application lodged against the Greek Government by the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish Governments; two applications lodged by Ireland against the United Kingdom, and two applications lodged by Cyprus against Turkey.
Individual applications brought against States which have expressly accepted this procedure (13 States have made such declarations, namely Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Federal Republic of Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxem- bourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) have been far more numerous than govern- mental applications. Between 5th July 1955, when the Com- mission began to receive individual applications, and 1st May 1975, about 7,500 such applications were submitted to the Commission.
The right of individuals to lodge applications with the Commission is undoubtedly the cornerstone of the structure set up by the conclusion of the Convention in Rome in 1950. It is also the most original feature of the entire mechanism of the Convention. Here, virtually for the first time in the history of human rights, the individual's right to take his com- plaint direct to an international body of a partly judicial nature is recognised. This right does not exist in relation to all European States, to be sure, and, when it does, it has to be exercised through proceedings held in camera. It never- theless provides a most effective shield for the defence of
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