Chapter 5 analyzes the relationship between the international admissibility criterion on the exhaustion of domestic remedies and the right to an effective remedy in Article 13. Event though there is close affinity between the rules, the Court has never, in the abstract, explained whether the requirements of effectivenes, arising under both rules, are the same. However, as the chapter explains, several factors speak for a different threshold and evaluation of the required effectiveness.

The chapter argues that judicial control mechanisms can provide effective remedies for individuals in ‘grey zones’ provided that the applicant can establish the responsibility of the respondent State and the (quasi-)judicial body is willing to exercise certain judicial activism to promote individuals’ access to international justice. The chapter highlights certain major deficiencies of judicial control mechanisms, before recommending certain tools of judicial activism that may promote individual applications from ‘grey zones’. If the attributability of the conduct to the respondent State is established, judicial control mechanisms are likely to have an impact on the human rights situation in the ‘grey zone’.