European Convention on Human
Rights
European Convention on Human Rights
The Convention for the Protection of Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
The European Court of Human Rights building in
Strasbourg
Signed
- location
4 November 1950
Rome
Effective
3 September 1953
Signatories Council of Europe member states
Depositary
Secretary General of the Council of
Europe
Languages
English and French
Wikisource original text:
European Convention for the Protection of
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
The Convention for the Protection of Hu-
man Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
(also called the "European Convention on Hu-
man Rights" and "ECHR"), was adopted un-
der the auspices of the Council of Europe[1]
in 1950 to protect human rights and funda-
mental freedoms in Europe. All Council of
Europe member states are party to the Con-
vention and new members are expected to
ratify the convention at the earliest opportun-
ity.[2]
The Convention established the European
Court of Human Rights. Any person who feels
his or her rights have been violated under
the Convention by a state party can take a
case to the Court. The decisions of the Court
are not automatically legally binding, but the
Court does have the power to award dam-
ages. The establishment of a Court to protect
individuals from human rights violations is an
innovative feature for an international con-
vention on human rights, as it gives the indi-
vidual an active role on the international
arena (traditionally, only states are con-
sidered actors in international
law). The
European Convention is still the only interna-
tional human rights agreement providing
such a high degree of individual protection.
State parties can also take cases against oth-
er state parties to the Court, although this
power is rarely used.
The Convention has several protocols. For
example, Protocol 6 prohibits the death pen-
alty except in time of war. The protocols ac-
cepted vary from State Party to State Party,
though it is understood that state parties
should be party to as many pr