European Convention on Human Rights

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) protects citizens in the European states against human rights violations. The Council of Europe (CoE) adopted ECHR in 1950, and today, membership of the Council of Europe is conditional on ratification of the ECHR. As part of this convention, in 1959 the States established the European Court of Human Rights (the acronym is ECtHR or ECHR). Citizens of the Member States may bring cases before the Court if they allege that a state is in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In Denmark, the Convention has great significance. It was implemented in national law in 1992, which means that the Danish courts have a duty to enforce it. This also means that citizens have the right to complain to the authorities or seek remedy before a national court citing ECHR.

The fundamental rights and freedoms
The European Convention encompasses civil and political rights, and consists of three parts:

The first part focuses on the fundamental civil and political rights including: freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and association, freedom of religion, the right to free and fair elections and the right to fair trial.

The second part deals with limitations on human rights that may be imposed by the signatories under special circumstances. For example, a state may restrict human rights on grounds of national security, to prevent unrest and crime or to protect the rights and freedoms of others.

The third and last part reviews the complaints system linked to ECHR.

ECHR does not embody economic, social or cultural rights. These are guaranteed instead by the Council of Europe's European Social Charter of 1961.

How the Convention came about
The strengthening and protection of human rights has always been a priority concern within the Council of Europe. As early as the Council of Europe’s inaugural meeting, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) recommended the adoption of a human rights convention. The object was simple: to provide guarantees for the human rights of citizens.

The inspiration came from the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948. However, the Declaration is not legally binding on states. With ECHR, the states sought to introduce monitoring as to whether the member states fulfilled the human rights obligations they had signed up to.

A product of the post-war era
The European Convention on Human Rights was born of an era that was still recovering from the effects of the Second World War. The war, notably the crimes committed by the Nazi regime, had revealed the fragility of human rights if the international community failed to assume responsibility for protecting them.

In earlier times, protection of human rights was left to the individual states. But the lessons of modern war, and a generally lax attitude to human rights, demonstrated the need for them to be made an international concern.

The protection of human rights now became an important instrument in the efforts to preserve global peace and security in that the international community committed to intervene if other states failed to respect universal human rights. And so, with the Convention, the states broke with the principle of not meddling in the internal political and legal affairs of each other.