The eight complainants from the North Caucasus Republic of Chechnya, which suffered two devastating separatist wars in the 1990s-early 2000s, appealed to the Strasbourg-based court saying that their relatives had disappeared after being detained by Russian troops.
Earlier this year, the Council of Europe harshly criticized Russia over alleged human rights violations by security forces in Chechnya and other parts of Russia's North Caucasus, including torture and executions.
In total, the European Court of Human Rights has received a total of 46,700 cases against Russia over the past ten years, which totals 20% of all complaints received.
Around 400 rulings have been made by the court in that time which equates to 5% of the total received.
