The European Convention on Human Rights
- how does it work?

The European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) protects the rights of more than 700 million* people in Europe. It sets out a list of specific basic rights and freedoms that all Europeans should have, such as the right to a fair trial, freedom from slavery, and the right to privacy.  

All 46 Council of Europe member countries have signed up to the Convention. These European countries agree to apply the Convention rights to help prevent a vast range of crimes like human trafficking, unlawful expropriation of property, and violence against women, or to ensure that citizens have free and fair elections and freedom of religion.  

Governments, parliaments and courts in each country are mainly responsible for upholding the rights set out in the Convention. This is done in many different ways. Judgments of national courts, legislation passed by parliaments and decisions made by national authorities are made taking into account the principles of the ECHR and the fundamental rights of Europeans.  

However, the European Court of Human Rights acts as a safety net. Individuals (and organisations) can bring human-rights complaints against any of the 46 member states to the court in Strasbourg after they have used up every possible chance of appeal at the national level. 

If the European Court finds that the applicant’s human rights have been violated, the country concerned has to provide justice to the individual. It may also have to take steps to make sure that the same thing does not happen again. The actions taken by the national authorities in response to judgments from the court are supervised by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. The case-law of the European Court is then factored into judgments issued by national courts, improving human-rights protections in each country across Europe.