What is the European Court of Human Right?
ECoHR
The European Court of Human Rights is the court of the Council of Europe. It’s based in Strasbourg (France). The European Court of Human Rights is an international court that was set up in 1959 which overlooks the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) 1950. The court ensures the countries of the Council of Europe (like the UK, respect the European Convention on Human Rights). If your human rights have been breached and you’ve not been able to get a remedy in the UK, you may be able to take your case to the Strasbourg court.
Countries involved
The member states include:
Albania, Andorra, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Republic of Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands,Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the UK.
Universal declaration
The Universal declaration​
You can find human rights in many different places. In addition to the European Convention on Human Rights, there are many international documents which apply all over the world, like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations after WWII.
Although it's a very important document, the Declaration is not legally binding. This means countries don’t have to follow it and you can’t rely on it in the courts. But the rights and freedoms included in the Declaration were used to create other binding documents like the European Convention on Human Rights.
Even though it isn't legally binding the UK has created the Human Rights Act which does accept the human rights and has made them into legally binding laws.
Changes
How does it stay relevant?
Cases in the ECtHR’ help ensure the ECHR is a ‘living instrument’ able to remain relevant to today’s society and not stuck in the 1950's when the protections were written down. For example, the idea of family in 1950 was very different to modern understanding and the right to respect for family and private life (Article 8) now recognises many types of couples like unmarried couples, same-sex couples, interracial couples, single-parents and their children. Which wouldn't be the case in the 1950's.