108 PROMOTING AND PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS A seven-judge chamber may relinquish jurisdiction over a case in favour of a grand chamber of 17 judges where the case involves a serious issue of general importance or a serious question affecting the interpretation or application of the Convention. A chamber judgement does not become final for a period of three months. During this period either party may request referral to the Grand Chamber and such a request is examined by a panel of five judges. Urgent cases The Court may grant priority to urgent cases. The Court may also grant interim measures where there is an imminent, real and serious risk to the life of the applicant or of serious ill-treatment. The Court may indicate that the State should either refrain from or undertake certain actions to protect the applicant. The measures sought and the reasons for seeking them must be indicated on the application form. Impact of the Strasbourg system on minority rights The preceding summary suggests ways in which the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms can protect minority rights; however, this is not the primary purpose of the Convention. There is a risk that, if a minority group tries to assert “minority rights” per se, the claim might be dismissed as beyond the scope of the Convention and therefore “manifestly ill founded”. Furthermore, even where a violation is found, it is still up to the State to provide remedies beyond damages, such as amending an offending piece of legislation. The Court does not act as an appellate court from domestic decisions, and it will only consider whether or not a State has fulfilled its obligations under the Convention, not whether it might have adopted different or even better policies. Contacts and further information The Registrar European Court of Human Rights Council of Europe F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex France Tel: 33 388 41 20 18 Fax: 33 388 41 27 30 Website: www.echr.coe.int The essential publication containing the European Convention, rules of procedure of the European Court of Human Rights and other information is European Convention on Human Rights: Collected Texts (Council of Europe, 1998). Individual decisions and judgements of the Court are issued in soft cover format and are collected in Reports of Judgments and Decisions. The Council of Europe also publishes an annual Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights, which contains a selection of the most important cases and information on the Convention’s application in domestic law. A number of books have been written on the Strasbourg system, concerning both specific rights and the system as a whole. Two authoritative analyses are: D. J. Harris, M. O’Boyle, E. P. Bates and C. M. Buckley, Law of the European Convention on Human Rights, 2d ed. (2009); and P. Van Dijk, F. Van Hoof, A. Van Rijn and L. Zwaak, Theory and Practice of the European Convention on Human Rights (2006).