Human rights are the Council of Europe's DNA, the founding principles that underpin everything we do, and one of the three pillars of our mission, along with democracy and defending the rule of law. The human-rights protection system built by the Council of Europe is seen at its strongest through the European Convention on Human Rights and the work of the European Court of Human Rights, which adjudicates cases brought by individual citizens against the government of countries they believe have violated their rights.
