Today marks the 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,
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.
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 who have 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.
In the 75 years of its existence, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has proven remarkable resilience as a safeguard for democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The judicial conversation enriched (and sometimes prompted) by the ECHR is not only a European exchange, a dialogue and debate among judges and politicians, citizens and civil servants, journalists and diplomats in the Council of Europe’s 46 member states.
The jurisprudence of the Strasbourg Court resonates globally – it influences the International Court of Justice, it inspires (and interacts with) its Inter-American and African counterparts, and it informs debates on the major environmental, political, and technological challenges of our times, including climate change, migration, and artificial intelligence. At.
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 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.
From protecting our privacy and workers' rights, to helping victims secure justice and advancing LGBTQ+ rights, the Convention has helped hold those in power to account and ensure our rights are respected.
Many of us may never need to rely on these protections directly. But when people do, the ECHR is there to defend their right to speak out, to protest, to love who they choose and to live in peace.
The ECHR and the Human Rights Act (HRA) are the strongest weapons that victims of crime have, putting a duty on the police to keep us safe and protect our rights to life, freedom from torture, and inhumane or degrading treatment. It brought justice to the 97 that died in the Hillsborough disaster. Article 2 of the Convention (right to life) won the families a new inquest that investigated the full circumstances of each death and whether the actions of the police had played a part. The inquest found that the 97 were unlawfully killed and the fans were not to blame for what happened.
The ECHR lets us access healthcare with dignity If you are in a care home or hospital, it is the ECHR that helps you retain your independence and autonomy. You will have your privacy respected, you can have family visit you, and if you have capacity, you will be able to make decisions relating to your care.
When local councils attempted to split an elderly married couple and place them in different care homes, it was Article 8 (right to a family life) that stopped this and kept them together.
It was the ECHR and the introduction of the HRA that put a duty on local authorities to keep us safe from ill-treatment. This means authorities must step in to prevent children being left with abusive parents and similarly keeps children with their parents in situations where they might otherwise be divided.
Article 8 (right to family life) ensured that a mother and child were kept together after leaving an abusive partner and were helped to find stable housing.
Our Armed Forces would be significantly less safe without the ECHR, both on and off the battlefield. The families of soldiers who died in the unsafe Snatch Land Rovers (known as ‘mobile coffins’ in Iraq) used the ECHR to win their case against the Ministry of Defence. Article 2 (right to life) put a duty on the MoD to provide suitable equipment to keep soldiers safe.
The ECHR protects LGBTQ+ rights The ECHR protects against discrimination and has secured many important advancements in the rights of LGBTQ+ people in the UK. It was the ECHR that overturned the ban on homosexual acts in Northern Ireland, ended the prohibition on gay people serving in the military, and helped equalise the age of consent.
The beauty of the ECHR is that it’s what’s known as a ‘living instrument,’ meaning these laws aren’t stuck in the 1950s but have developed over time to meet 21st century challenges.
But recent changes to how the ECHR is applied risks opening the door to a slow erosion of all our rights.
The new Prime Minister has an opportunity to choose a different path: one that protects our hard-won rights and freedoms now and in the future.
