Online/RexAisha Gani@aishaganiFrida

Online/Rex
Aisha Gani
@aishagani
Friday 3 October 2014 15.48 BST Last modified on Friday 3 October 2014 15.51 BST
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After the traumas of the second world war, the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 was the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled. It was a turning point in history, and was a written text promoting peace and diplomacy.

Here’s article 2 of the declaration:

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.”

The European convention on human rights was drafted by the newly formed Council of Europe in Rome on 4 November 1950. The convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms aimed to achieve greater international unity in recognising the equal rights of men and women, and to incorporate the traditions of civil liberty. It came into force on 3 September 1953. The adoption of the convention by the Council of Europe was the first step in implementing the Declaration of Human Rights in writing.

Here are 11 facts about the convention and the court that implements it:

Rights and freedoms: There are 17 key articles relating to rights and freedoms in the convention outlined in section 1 Article 2-18, which include: 2) the right to life; 3) prohibition of torture; 4) the prohibition of slavery and forced labour; 5) the right to liberty and security; 6) the right to a fair trial; 7) no punishment without law; 8) the right to respect for private and family life; 9) freedom of thought, conscience and religion and 10) freedom of expression.
Opponents of the court in Strasbourg often point to article 8 – the right to respect for private life and family – and article 10 – freedom of expression – which are incorporated in the British human rights act, as the main contentious aspects. This was the case when the home secretary, Theresa May, incorrectly claimed at her party conference speech in 2011 that an illegal immigrant could not be deported from the UK because of his pet cat.
European court of human rights (ECtHR): It is the international court based in Strasbourg, which was set up in 1959 and implements the convention. This is the place where rules on individual or state applications, alleging violations of civil and political rights set out in the convention, are made. It is also the physical place where rulings are made.
The court is responsible for monitoring respect for the human rights of 800 million Europeans within the 47 Council of Europe member states that have ratified the convention.
At present, 47 judges – who are elected for a non-renewable term every nine years by the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe – sit at the court. They are totally independent and can not engage in any activity that would hinder their impartiality. Since the court was established, most cases have been lodged by individuals.
Statistics: There have been a total of 916 judgments which concerned the 47 Council of Europe member states, and only 1.42% of the total concerned the UK. Almost half of the judgments concerned five of the 47 member states: Russia (129), Turkey (124), Romania (88), Ukraine (69) and Hungary (41).
A total 797 judgements (or 87.01%) found at least one violation of the convention – including 119 judgments concerning Russia, 118 concerning Turkey, 83 concerning Romania, 65 concerning Ukraine and 50 concerning Hungary.
In 2013, the court had decided on 1,652 cases concerning the UK. Of these, 1,633 were declared inadmissible or struck out. That’s 98.85% of cases.
Last year, there were 13 judgments concerning the UK, with eight judgements finding at least one violation of the convention.
There were 2,519 cases pending against the UK as of 1 January 2014, which includes 2,006 cases related to prisoners’ right to vote. In contrast there are 16,813 pending cases concerning Russia, 14,379 concerning Italy, 13,284 concerning Ukraine, 11,230 concerning Serbia and 10,931 concerning Turkey.
The overall backlog of pending cases has fallen from 151,600 in 2011 to 99,900 in 2013 – a 34% decrease. This is the result of the reform process which has been under way for several years. There had been consecutive year-on-year increases of cases between 1999 and 2011