Bezsonova M. Constitutional right to appeal to international human rights institutions: problems of theory and practice.

This thesis offers a study of the problems of theory and practice of realizing the constitutional human and citizen right to seek protection of their rights and freedoms at international human rights institutions. The thesis describes evolution of the right to apply to international human rights institutions: its development periods and the factors that bore upon its formation and development in the context of genesis of the national system of constitutional law. The notion of international human rights institutions was reviewed, their features were ascertained and their types defined. The meaning of the constitutional right to apply to international human rights institutions was analyzed, and its place in the system of guarantees of personal rights and freedoms was studied. It was stressed that the dual nature of the right to apply to international human rights institutions proves its substantial specifics and significance for the protection of human rights. This work improves definition of the right to apply to international human rights institutions as a subjective constitutional right regarded, in view of its significance, as an instrument of protecting rights and freedoms pronounced and guaranteed by the Main Law of the state; as a guarantee of exercising other subjective rights; and as an element of the right to have access to justice. It was proved that the right to apply to international human rights institutions represents an important element of the constitutional legal mechanism of guaranteeing and protecting human rights and freedoms in Ukraine. It was emphasized that in the mechanism of protecting human rights, the right to apply to international human rights institutions represents a system of measures that create indispensable conditions for its practical realization, eliminate objective and subjective obstacles that render the realization of the said right impossible or turn it into formality, establish the limits of its realization and ensure concretization thereof in the existing legislation. A characteristic of the legal nature of the right to apply to international human rights institutions was provided by highlighting its structural parts, represented by the following legal capacities: 1) the right to demand proper behavior from the obligated party; 2) the right to a certain behavior; 3) the right- complaint. The author states that international control carried out by international human rights institutions, whose competence is recognized under an international agreement by the state concerned that violates human rights and freedoms, acts as an element of the mechanism of ensuring and protecting human rights. Procedural aspects of realizing the right of ukrainian citizens to apply to international human rights institutions were revealed. The conclusion regarding the expediency of including to the sources of constitutional law of Ukraine not only the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in the cases versus Ukraine but also its judgments in the cases versus other states that prove violation of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms was substantiated. Legal consequences of decisions made by international human rights institutions were defined, and the matter of these decisions being legally binding and their effect on development of the national law was ascertained.