PART 1: Overview of the Concil of Europe, the Convention and the Court 1.1 The Council of Europe The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, more commonly referred to as the “European Convention on Human Rights” and hereinafter as “the Convention”, was drafted under the auspices of the Council of Europe, an inter-governmental body set up by the Treaty of London on 5 May 1949.1 According to Article 1 of the Statute of the Council of Europe, the aim of the organisation “is to achieve a greater unity between its members for the purpose of safeguarding and realising the ideals and principles which are their common heritage and facilitating their economic and social progress”. In pursuit of this aim, each member State resolved, in Article 3 of the same Statute, to “accept the principles of the rule of law and of the enjoyment by all persons within its jurisdiction of human rights and fundamental freedoms.” This special importance which member States accorded to human rights – a newly emerging concept at a time when the majority of the world’s States jealously guarded the sovereign privilege to deal with their citizens as they wished – was subsequently taken to a new level with the opening for signature in Rome on 4 November 1950 of the Council of Europe’s Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The Convention, which was the first international legal instrument to safeguard human rights through an enforcement mechanism, entered into force on 3 September 1953. At the time of writing, the Council of Europe has 47 member States. Membership in the Council of Europe is contingent on ratification of the Convention and its Protocols. The Council of Europe’s headquarters is located in Strasbourg, France. The Statute of the Council of Europe established two organs – the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly. The Committee of Ministers, which consists of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Member States, is the decision-making body of the Council of Europe. Its functions include supervising the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. The Parliamentary Assembly is the parliamentary organ of the Council of Europe. It consists of a number of members of national Parliaments from each member State, with a President elected each year from amongst them. The Parliamentary Assembly’s functions include the election of the judges of the European Court of Human Rights from a list of three candidates submitted by each Contracting Party. Furthermore, the Parliamentary Assembly is responsible for the adoption of Conventions and 1 The treaty was signed by ten European States, i.e. Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In August 1949, Greece and Turkey joined the Council, increasing the number of its members to twelve. Subsequent ratifications have brought the number of member States to 47. The Council of Europe has granted observer status to the Holy See, the United States, Canada, Japan and Mexico. 19