European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg, France
First, it is an original idea which serves helpless people, victims of abuse who may also be illiterate, impoverished and need access to justice. OWAAT strives to assist them in vindicating their fundamental human rights and liberties.
Second, it goes deep to the root of the problem of our society because it tries in the simplest possible way to give all the necessary information and legal tools to all those who need it, but they have no other means to find it.
In Golder v. United Kingdom (Appl. No. 4451/70, decision dated 21/2/1975, paras. 34-35), the European Court of Human Rights read the right of access to a court into the fair trial guarantee in Article 6 of the Convention. It also stated that one could not suppose compliance with the rule of law (to which emphasis is placed in the Preamble of the Convention) without the possibility of taking legal disputes to court. Τhis principle supported by many other cases of the ECtHR, including those affecting Cyprus directly, makes the role of OWAAT even more important.
As Victor Hugo (History of a Crime, Part II, § 10) profoundly observed:
“All the forces in the world are not so powerful as the idea whose time has come”.
“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come”.
This holds true with OWAAT’s idea, whose time has come in Cyprus. A University law clinic is established for this purpose, headed by a competent and specialized Fulbright scholar. The results from such an empirical study are expected to be tremendously helpful. Indeed, a rare and significant material is needed for such a dynamic positive change in our society.
New laws and Court’s rules should be enacted and implemented to encompass this essential and novel idea.
Nicosia, 17 December, 2014.
Dr. George A. Serghides
President of the Family Court of Nicosia-Kyrenia”