European Convention on Human Rights

The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (commonly known as the European Convention on Human Rights or ECHR) is a supranational international treaty designed to protect human rights and political freedoms throughout Europe. It was opened for signature on 4 November 1950 by the member states of the newly formed Council of Europe^[1] and entered into force on 3 September 1953. All Council of Europe member states are parties to the Convention, and any new member is required to ratify it at the earliest opportunity.^[2]

The ECHR was directly inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948. Its main difference lies in the existence of an international court, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), whose judgments are legally binding on states parties. This ensures that the rights set out in the Convention are not just principles but are concretely enforceable through individual complaint or inter-state complaint procedures.

To guarantee this judicial enforcement, the Convention established both the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and the ECtHR, which has sat in Strasbourg since its creation in 1959. Any person who believes their rights under the Convention have been violated by a state party can bring a case before the Court, provided their state allows it under Article 56 of the Convention. Judgments finding violations are binding on the states concerned, which are obliged to comply, particularly by paying appropriate compensation to applicants for any damage suffered. The Committee of Ministers supervises the execution of judgments.

The ECtHR has defined the Convention as a living instrument,^[3] meaning it must be interpreted in light of present-day conditions. This evolving case law can restrict the margin of appreciation left to states or create new rights derived from existing provisions.

Since its adoption, the Convention has been amended by seventeen additional protocols, which have added new rights or extended existing ones.^[4] These include the right to property, the right to education, the right to free elections, the prohibition of imprisonment for debt, the right to freedom of movement, the ban on expelling nationals, the prohibition of collective expulsion of aliens, the abolition of the death penalty, procedural safeguards for the expulsion of lawfully residing foreigners, the right to a double degree of jurisdiction in criminal matters, the right to compensation for wrongful conviction, the ne bis in idem principle (not to be tried or punished twice for the same offence), equality between spouses, and a general prohibition of discrimination.

The most recent version entered into force on 1 August 2021 through Protocol No. 15, which added the principle of subsidiarity to the preamble. This principle reaffirms that states parties have the primary responsibility to secure and remedy human rights violations at national level.

The European Convention on Human Rights is widely considered the most effective international treaty for the protection of human rights and has had a significant influence on the domestic law of all Council of Europe member states.^[5][6]