EUROPEAN CONVENTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS: 45 YEARS OF IMPLEMENTATION

Year 1998, Volume: 3 Issue: 4, 0 - 0, 01.12.1998

Heribert Golsong

Abstract

With the entry into force of the 11th Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, a new international collective guarantee system was put into place as of 1 November 1998. The structure which was charged with a similar supervisory power, namely a European Commission of Human Rights and a European Court of Human Rights, both bodies composed of part-time members, was dismantled; at the same date, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, composed of the Foreign Ministers of all member States of the Council of Europe, ceased to exercise decision-making powers on the merits of certain claims. Thus, the structure which over 45 years, to follow the language of Article 19 of the Convention, “ensured the observance of the engagements undertaken by the High Contracting Parties in the Convention”, has come to an end. It is, however, obvious that the legacy of past practice will inspire and indeed guide to a certain extent the jurisprudence of the single court, which is composed of full-time judges. Having said this, it is equally obvious that adjustments will emerge in future case practice, if only by taking into account the much broader geographic scope of application of the Convention. When the Commission of Human Rights started its work, in June 1955, there were only twelve contracting states, now there are forty, many of which have different social and political experiences to one another, especially in the recent past. They also have various degrees of judicial or administrative development.