Human Rights in Europe

• The facilitator has a lecture on the European human rights system (30 minutes), and shows the film "The European Court of Human Rights"
• Divide the participants into groups. Preferably there should be no more than four to a group.
• The facilitator shows the group how to find cases in the HUDOC data base on the European Court of Human Rights webpage. It is possible to search cases according to a keyword or an article in the European Convention. A good tip is to work with the press releases of the judgements as they give a good overview of the case.
• Each group is instructed to find and analyse a case from the European Court of Human Rights. The participants can work with cases on freedom of expression or other subjects they are interested in. The following questions are then to be answered:
  • Who are the parties?
  • Which article (s) in the European Convention of Human Rights is (are) claimed to have been violated?
  • What is the case about? What is the problem? Give a short summary
  • What is the Court’s decision and what are the main underlying arguments?
• The groups will then present their cases to the others.

Reflection

• In what way has the European system contributed to strengthening human rights in Europe after the Second World War?
• In what way are democracy and human rights related?

Debriefing

The European Court of Human Rights has proven to be a productive and influential European instrument. In general, one can say that the states respect the Court´s judgements. But the Court’s success has led to one disadvantage. Its positive reputation has led to many more applications than it has managed to handle. Hopefully, new reforms will make the system more efficient.

Follow-up assignments

• Write an article about a person or group that has won a case in the European Court of Human Rights. The subject of your article may be from your own or another country.
• Write an article about the Commissioner for Human Rights. The Commissioner acts as an independent institution and is responsible for promoting awareness of and respect for human rights in all Council of Europe member states.

Resources

• European Court of Human Rights. The ECHR in 50 questions
• HUDOC database on case law
• Council of Europe: Human Rights Channel
• Council of Europe: Commissioner for Human Rights

Films

• ECHR – European Convention of Human Rights (European Court of Human Rights):
• ECHR – Film on the European Court of Human Rights (English Version)
• It is possible to watch the hearing of a Court case online 

Documents

• The European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
• For the group work: Strasbourg cases on freedom of expression