Who needs the European convention on human rights?

Stuart Sorensen

What is the European convention on human rights? Do we really need it? What’s the big deal anyway? The convention has come under attack in recent years. Opposers see the ECHR and the UK’s Human Rights Act as preventing them from ‘dealing with’ those who are different. For example they think that it gives citizens from other cultures, races and religions equality under the law – and they’re absolutely right, it does. That’s one of the things that the convention was designed to do shortly after the end of the second world war. In fact, when exploring the purpose of the ECHR and the way that it affects us today it’s almost impossible to avoid considering the atrocities of the Holocaust, the pressure of the jackboot on occupied Europe, the treatment of disabled people or those from ‘non Aryan’ races and the political violence of Nazism. Many UK citizens oppose the ECHR without ever realising just what they are arguing against. The European convention was and still is a direct response