Even if you have not contributed to a violation of your procedural rights by an administrative authority or by a court in a later stage, if you had an opportunity to prevent or rectify it during further proceedings, it is your responsibility to do so.
You will not be able to claim that your human rights have been violated or receive compensation if:
- your own actions have contributed to the violation, for example, by not complying with your duties
example You will extremely limit your option to effectively challenge an administrative decision on administrative sanction before a court if you fail to react on announcement of an administrative proceeding and to propose evidence in your case at all. An administrative court may refuse to open an evidence process and may decide your case based on facts provided within an administrative procedure.
- you have not submitted a complaint when you thought your human rights were violated, when it was possible to do so
example If you think that a judge has treated you unequally by refusing to hear your witness, you can complain about this in your appeal to the higher court. However, if you don’t complain about it, you may not be able to claim that your rights have been violated and to ask for compensation later to human rights institutions such as the European Court of Human Rights.
Submit a complaint
If you think your human rights have been violated, you must submit a complaint to the appropriate authority as soon as possible. If you do not complain when your rights have been violated, you will not be able to complain about such a violation later and receive compensation. Therefore, if you would like to complain and seek compensation for a possible human rights violation, it is your responsibility to act. Read more about regular complaints procedure.