70 years of the European Convention on Human Rights

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the landmark ;treaty the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – more formally, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms – coming into effect, a milestone that highlights the enduring importance of safeguarding human rights across Europe, even as ongoing challenges keep putting its principles to the test.  Members of the European Council ratified the European Convention on Human Rights on 4 November 1950, but it only came into effect on 3 September 1953, so exactly 70 years ago today,. 

The Convention’s principal authors were a Frenchman, a Belgian and a Scot: Pierre-Henri Teitgen, Fernand Dehousse and David Maxwell Fyfe (later Lord Chancellor Kilmuir).

The ECHR was a remarkable achievement. Like its better known cousin, the EU, it has become a foundation stone of post-war peace and stability in Europe. We should heap praise on the ECHR, not least for the way it protects those most at risk in our society.

The ECHR is an international human rights treaty between the 47 states that are members of the Council of Europe (CoE) - not to be confused with the European Union. It is the role of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg to make sure that the Convention is respected.

The court is responsible for monitoring respect for the human rights of 800 million Europeans within the 47 Council of Europe member states that have ratified the convention. At present, 47 judges – who are elected for a non-renewable term every nine years by the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe – sit at the court. They are totally independent and can not engage in any activity that would hinder their impartiality. Since the court was established, most cases have been lodged by individuals.

The CoE was founded after World War II to protect human rights and the rule of law, and to promote democracy. The ECHR guarantees specific rights and is a framework people can invoke, should their rights and freedoms be compromised. The UK’s history with the Council of Europe is longer than its relationship with the European Union, as it joined the CoE 24 years before it joined the EU. 

While the UK’s membership of the CoE is unaffected by Brexit, senior cabinet ministers have stated that they would be prepared to pull the UK out of the ECHR in order to press ahead with their Rwanda policy, which would see people seeking asylum moved to the east African country, where their asylum claim would be assessed.  

The UK’s own Human Rights Act reflects the rights included in the ECHR, including rights to freedom from torture, to a fair trial and to respect for family and private life, to name a few.  Legislation moving through parliament 

Before the incorporation of the Convention, individuals in the United Kingdom could only complain of unlawful interference with their Convention rights by lodging a petition with the European Commission of Human Rights in Strasbourg. That all changed on 2 October 2000 when the Human Rights Act 1998 came into force, allowing UK citizens to sue public bodies for breaches of their Convention rights in domestic courts. 

Ever since, it has protected the basic human rights of every single person in the UK.

Governments signed up to the ECHR have made a legal commitment to abide by certain standards of behaviour and to protect the basic rights and freedoms of people. It is a treaty to protect the rule of law and promote democracy in European countries. 

The idea for the creation of the ECHR was proposed in the early 1940s while the Second World War was still raging across Europe. It was developed to ensure that governments would never again be allowed to dehumanise and abuse people’s rights with impunity, and to help fulfil the promise of ‘never again’. 

In May 1948 after the war had ended, the ‘Congress of Europe’ was held in The Hague, a gathering of over 750 delegates which included leaders from civil society groups, academia, business and religious groups, trade unions, and leading politicians from across Europe such as Winston Churchill, François Mitterand and Konrad Adenauer.  In his speech to the Congress, Churchill stated: 

  “In the centre of our movement stands the idea of a Charter of Human Rights, guarded by freedom and sustained by law.”  

 Winston Churchill, (The Hague, 7th May 1948)

The European Convention on Human Rights  guarantees a range of political rights and freedoms of the individual against interference by the State and protects  the basic human rights of every single person in the UK, and the rights we are all familiar with come from it..

Now, the ECHR is under threat.  Senior Government ministers are on record saying they want the UK out of the Convention, all so they can push forward plans that breach human rights. We cannot allow this to happen. 

The controversial Rwanda deportation plan put in place by the Conservatives continues to be blocked on all sides of the political strata, including from within the Conservative Party itself. This has led to potential threats from senior members of the Conservative Party to campaign to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (“ECHR”) at the next election. 

The Home Secretary Suella Braverman is among  those thought to support leaving the ECHR are home secretary Suella Braverman who  stated back in March of this year, that the European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR”) was ‘sometimes at odds with British values’. 

This is an unsurprising response given that the first planned deportation flight to Rwanda was dramatically blocked at the last minute by the ECtHR, who granted an urgent interim measure indicating to the UK Government that the applicant (an Iraqi national) should not be removed to Rwanda until three weeks after the delivery of the final domestic decision in his ongoing judicial review proceedings. 

Whether the ECHR is truly ‘at odds with British Values’ is debatable. Recent data from King’s College London  https://www.kcl.ac.uk/policy-institute/assets/uk-attitudes-to-immigration-1018742pub01-115.pdf shows that the UK public are the most accepting of immigration, of 17 countries represented in the survey, ahead of Germany, the United States and Brazil to name a few.  The survey highlights that the UK is among the most likely of those nations to think that immigration strengthens cultural diversity, and among those least likely to believe that immigration increases unemployment or the risk of terrorism. 

We need to make sure the Government – and all political parties – commit to keeping the UK in the  European Convention on Human Rights. If the UK government pulled  out of the ECHR, we would lose our protection from human rights abuses and we would not be able to hold them to account.  All of us would lose out.

Above everything, threats to leave the ECHR appear to be a last-ditch attempt by the Conservatives ahead of a general election next year to be seen to be defending UK borders, rather than actually reflecting UK values on immigration.

The ECHR continues to play a significant role in the protection of justice in this country, and it is crucial that progress made in human rights law is not undone as we approach the next general election.

However politicians are trying to divide us by scapegoating sections of society, like refugees and asylum seekers,

Exiting the  European Convention on Human Rights, would have far-reaching consequences affecting every citizen of the UK, including disabled individuals, the elderly, women, LGBTQ+ individuals, minorities, and vulnerable groups. Additionally, workers’ rights, freedom of expression and press, as well as privacy and surveillance, would all be influenced. in an attempt to weaken our rights.

The government has also  recently passed a series of draconian new laws that will have a chilling effect on peaceful protest and restrict free speech,  It’s not just our right to protest that’s at risk. All our human rights and freedoms are under threat. 

One thing the government and Tory backbenchers in favour of leaving the ECHR are conspicuously silent about is that most cases brought to the ECHR are cases about human rights violations committed by states against their own​ citizens. Only two countries have ever left the treaty: Greece when it abolished democracy and imposed a junta in 1969 - Athens later rejoined when military rule ended in 1974 - while Russia was expelled following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.  

Human rights  are in place to stop corrupt Governments like the one we have at the moment, and the European Convention on Human Rights  brings home fundamental, universal rights we all have as human beings, and allows us to challenge authorities if they violate them.and acts as a safety net  for all of us, working quietly to ensure our rights are respected, and a crucial means of defence for the most vulnerable. 

It should be no surprise, that those who seek to undermine support for the ECHR have started not by criticising the Convention but rather by attacking the legal profession in general and human rights lawyers in particular. Just as with Brexit, they recognise that the pathway to leaving the ECHR lies through polarising and dividing public opinion.

Human rights protections  must not weakened or abandoned. They should be strengthened. We must  not be divided. Either everyone has human rights, or no one does.. We all want to live in a society where everyone is treated with dignity and respect The ECHR is a step towards that vision. On its 70th birthday, let’s celebrate the ECHR and fight to keep the UK in it, and to  pledge never to let this or any other government to  take our fundamental  human rights and freedoms. away from us.