The European Convention on Human Rights

Human Rights Treaties

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and Universal Declaration of Human Rights are both expressions of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled. The ECHR aims to achieve greater international unity in recognizing the equal rights of men and women, and to incorporate the traditions of civil liberty. The adoption of the convention by the Council of Europe was the implementation of the Declaration of Human Rights. In general, the outlined rights includes the right to life, prohibition of torture/slavery and forced labor, the right to liberty and security, the right to fair trial, no punishment without law, the right to respect for private life, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression.

However, some articles of the Convention ad their interpretations by the European Court of Human Rights differ from the ones from the UN’s Universal Declaration. First of all, it is evident to see that the ECHR is more regionally specific as it seeks to protect the right of citizen of Europe while the UN’s protects the right of all who are considered human, which the ECHR lacks. In fact, art 6 of the declaration stresses on that matter. Secondly, the ECHR has more details in each right than the UN’s declaration. For example: the UDHR’s art 5 is similar to the ECHR’s art 3 yet the ECHR has more explanations and details. Finally, the UDHR does not share art 13, 14 with the ECHR. The reasons for these differences are caused by the pressures of governments whose political agendas and policies will make them make different decisions while the UDHR just expresses a more hopeful and optimistic view about the world.

The ECHR can be more effective due to its detailed explanations and criterions as opposed to a broad and flawed UDHR due to its generalities, which make loopholes for law violations. Even though it is not as idealistic as the UDHR,