Last Updated: Friday, 01 November 2019, 13:47 GMT

Council of Europe: European Court of Human Rights

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
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Z.A. and others v. Russia

28 March 2017 | Judicial Body: Council of Europe: European Court of Human Rights | Document type: Case Law | Legal Instrument: 1950 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) | Topic(s): Freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment - Immigration Detention - Prison or detention conditions - Right to liberty and security | Countries: Iraq - Palestine, State of - Russian Federation - Somalia - Syrian Arab Republic

Aden Ahmed v. Malta

23 July 2013 | Judicial Body: Council of Europe: European Court of Human Rights | Document type: Case Law | Topic(s): Freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment - Habeas corpus - Immigration Detention - Prison or detention conditions - Right to liberty and security | Countries: Malta - Somalia

Amuur v. France

in order to determine whether someone has been “deprived of his liberty” within the meaning of Article 5 of the ECHR, “the starting point must be his concrete situation, and account must be taken of a whole range of criteria such as the type, duration, effects and manner of implementation of the measure in question. The difference between deprivation of and restriction upon liberty is merely one of degree or intensity, and not one of nature or substance. [...] Above all, such confinement must not deprive the asylum-seeker of the right to gain effective access to the procedure for determining refugee status” (para. 43)

25 June 1996 | Judicial Body: Council of Europe: European Court of Human Rights | Document type: Case Law | Topic(s): Arbitrary arrest and detention - Right to liberty and security - Transit | Countries: France - Somalia

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