Petition to Reform Rule 39 of the European Court of Human Rights**

Why this matters to you

Europe was built to protect people.

To protect families.

To protect children.

To protect you — when your own State fails.

But today, there is a serious gap in the European human rights system.

When national authorities do not act,

when courts delay,

when children are not protected,

when families are destroyed,

when poverty is criminalised,

Europe no longer has an emergency mechanism that actually protects people in time.

Many citizens are discovering this only when it is already too late.

What is happening

Across Europe, people are being pushed into desperation because:

requests to reduce or reassess child maintenance due to poverty or hardship are rejected, leading to prison instead of support

parents are denied contact with their children without urgent remedies

children are left in unsafe situations while institutions “assess” and “delay”

documents are misrecorded or manipulated, and never corrected

jurisdictional rules are bent, blocking access to protection

domestic remedies become meaningless due to inaction

When all national remedies fail, people turn to the European Court of Human Rights and request Rule 39 interim measures — the last possible safeguard.

And then they discover something terrifying:

👉 Rule 39 only applies if your life or physical integrity is about to be lost.

👉 Psychological destruction, family collapse, child trauma, imprisonment for poverty — are not considered “irreparable harm”.

This means:

you can lose your child

you can be jailed for being poor

your family can be destroyed

your mental health can collapse

and still receive no emergency protection.

Why this affects EVERYONE

This is not about one case.

This is not about one country.

This affects:

mothers

fathers

children

families

any citizen who may one day face institutional failure

If this gap exists, anyone can fall into it.

Today it is happening to others.

Tomorrow it can happen to you.

A human rights system that intervenes only after irreversible damage has occurred is not protecting rights — it is documenting failure.

The legal problem

This situation contradicts:

Article 8 ECHR – Right to family life

Article 13 ECHR – Right to an effective remedy

Article 3 ECHR – Protection from inhuman or degrading treatment (including severe psychological harm)

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – Best interests of the child

When there is no urgent remedy to prevent irreversible harm, the right to an effective remedy becomes an illusion.

What we are asking

We call on the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights to:

Reform Rule 39 so it also applies when there is imminent and irreversible harm to:

children

family life

mental and psychological integrity

Recognise that irreparable harm is not only physical death, but also:

permanent loss of parent–child relationships

severe psychological trauma

imprisonment caused by systemic failure

irreversible family destruction

Create a real emergency protection mechanism for cases where States fail to act and time itself becomes the danger.

Why your signature matters

This petition is a warning.

It says:

“We see the gap.

We refuse to accept a system where people must break down, lose everything, or reach the edge of life to be protected.”

Signing this petition means:

you demand real protection, not symbolic rights

you demand intervention before damage, not after

you demand that Europe protects people when it matters most

If we stay silent

If we do nothing, this gap will remain.

And more families will fall into it.

Children cannot wait.

Families cannot wait.

Human dignity cannot wait.

Sign this petition

Because if Europe fails to protect its people in emergencies,

none of us is truly safe.