04/11/2025 European Convention on Human Rights
PACE has launched a dedicated web page to mark the 75th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights. The new page highlights the Assembly’s contribution to the drafting and adoption of the Convention, its role in strengthening the Convention system, and its continued efforts to ensure that its standards are effectively applied in all member States.
“This page – created to mark the 75th anniversary of its signing – showcases the many ways the Assembly champions the Convention,” said PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos. “It consistently cites Convention standards in its own texts, and requires national parliaments to ensure that new laws across Europe are in line with them,” he added.
The new page and its sub-sections present an overview of the Convention’s origins, key milestones and the evolution of rights protection in Europe, while tracing the Assembly’s engagement in adapting the system to new challenges. It also offers links to relevant texts and information on PACE’s ongoing activities in support of the Convention and the European Court of Human Rights.
Adopted in 1950, the Convention is the cornerstone of human rights protection in Europe and a key reference for national parliaments, governments and courts. From the outset, PACE played an essential role in its creation, having first proposed the idea of a convention. It remains central to its functioning today, particularly through the election of judges to the European Court of Human Rights and through the Assembly’s resolutions and recommendations aimed at improving the implementation of judgments and the protection of rights across the continent.