The Court, based in Strasbourg, was set up as a result of the European Convention on Human Rights, created in 1950. This set out a catalogue of civil and political rights and freedoms. It allows people to lodge complaints against States which have signed up to the Convention for alleged violations of those rights. Although founded in 1950, the Court did not actually come into existence until 1959. It gained its present form as a single European Court of Human Rights when Protocol No. 11 to the ECHR took effect in 1998.
The Court is currently made up of 47 judges, one in principle for every State signed up to the Convention. They are elected by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and serve for six years. Judges sit on the Court as individuals and do not represent their country.
Website: www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=home
On 21 June, the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgement in Ramadan v. Malta, a case concerning the revocation of Maltese citizenship that rendered the applicant stateless. The Court did not find any violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), but noted that arbitrary revocation of citizenship can in certain circumstances be problematic under Article 8 because of its impact on the right to private life. Judge Pinto de Albuquerque’s dissenting opinion called on the Court to recognize the right to citizenship as an autonomous right under the ECHR and referenced to UNHCR’s Global Action Plan to End Statelessness. A request to refer the case to the Grand Chamber is currently pending.