Convenzione europea dei diritti dell’uomo

The United Kingdom is ready to launch a comprehensive reform of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) at a high level conference on the future of the European Court of Human Rights, to be held in Brighton on 18-20 April 2012. Emma Bonino, Vice President of the Italian Senate, and Staffan De Mistura, Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, discussed this issue during a workshop at the IAI on April 12.

The ECHR, the most modern code of fundamental rights in the world, is now facing a crucial moment: almost sixty years after its entry into force, it and its greatest resource, the European Court of Human Rights, have been called into question by some States, which are unconvinced of its effectiveness.

Any attempt to amend the Convention must be very carefully considered, argues Emma Bonino, to avoid the risk of turning the Court into a marginal body compared to the States’ judiciaries, and of jeopardising one of the most important and “imitated” elements of the Convention, i.e. the possibility of individual complaints by victims.

As regards Italy, Under Secretary De Mistura, who will be in Brighton, ensures that the Italian government will put forward its own proposals for reform of the ECHR to balance those of the United Kingdom.

The Court in Strasbourg is the only independent European judge specialized in human rights, said Antonio Bultrini, Professor of International Law and Human Rights, in introducing the seminar. It is an essential resource for enhancing the development of civil society in those European countries in which fundamental rights are still routinely violated, partly due to the lack of adequate safety warranties by national judicial systems.

The national systems’ inability to provide such protection is both cause and effect of one of the matters that most concerns the British government (President of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe until May 2012): the impressive number of outstanding appeals (almost 160,000 to date). In Brighton, the UK intends to insist on improving the “subsidiary” mechanism, with the risk of removing from the system the criteria that inspired the Convention in 1950.