On 4 November 1950, at the Palazzo Barberini in Rome, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms was opened for signature by the members of the Council of Europe. The English and French texts are equally authentic. The depositary is the Secretary General. It is not the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and not the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Article 1: the High Contracting Parties shall secure to everyone within their jurisdiction the rights in Section I. Article 2 protects life; a death sentence imposed by a court for a crime so provided by law remains permitted. Article 3 forbids torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Article 4 forbids slavery, servitude and forced labour, with the listed exceptions. Article 5 guarantees liberty and security of person, with the lawful grounds for deprivation of liberty. Article 6: a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal.

Articles 8–11 protect private and family life, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association, subject to such limitations as are prescribed by law and necessary in a democratic society. Article 13: an effective remedy before a national authority. Article 14: enjoyment of the rights without discrimination. Article 15: derogation in time of war or other public emergency, except from Articles 2 (save deaths from lawful acts of war), 3, 4(1) and 7. Article 64: reservations of a general character are not permitted; a reservation must state the law concerned.

Article 19 sets up two organs: a European Commission of Human Rights and a European Court of Human Rights. Article 24: any Party may refer to the Commission an alleged breach by another Party. Article 25: petitions from persons, non-governmental organisations or groups of individuals are receivable only if the State has declared that it recognises that competence; the Commission exercises it once at least six such declarations bind Parties. Article 26: exhaustion of domestic remedies and a six-month time-limit. Article 32: if the case is not referred to the Court within three months, the Committee of Ministers decides by a two-thirds majority whether there has been a violation; the decision is binding.

Article 44: only the High Contracting Parties and the Commission may bring a case before the Court. Article 46: the Court’s jurisdiction is compulsory only for States that lodge a declaration to that effect. Article 66: the Convention shall be ratified; ratifications are deposited with the Secretary General; it comes into force after the tenth instrument. It entered into force on 3 September 1953 (UNTS 213 I-2889, ETS No. 005). Article 65: denunciation only after five years as a Party and six months’ notice.

The 1950 Convention does not abolish the death penalty, does not make individual petition compulsory and does not give private persons a direct right of access to the Court. Protocol No. 11, in force from 1 November 1998, replaced the Commission with a single permanent Court. Accession by the European Union, later required by the Treaty of Lisbon, is not a 1950 clause.

Image: Palazzo Barberini, Rome, place of opening for signature; Chabe01, 30 August 2021; CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: European Convention on Human Rights. Treaty text: Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Rome, 4 November 1950 (ETS No. 005).