Professional Documents
Culture Documents
African Charter on
Convention on European
Human and People’s
Human Rights Convention on
Rights
(Pact of San Human Rights
(Banjul Charter)
José)
Entered into force on October 21, 1986, It was adopted by many Drafted in 1950 by the then
countries in the Western newly formed Council of
Hemisphere in San José, Costa Europe,[1] the convention
Rica, on 22 November 1969 , it entered into force on 3
did not enter into force until September 1953.
July 1978 All Council of Europe
member states are party to
the Convention and new
members are expected to
ratify the convention at the
earliest opportunity
As of 2016, 54 states have ratified the
Jurisdiction Charter.[5] It has been ratified by every African
Union member state.
The Charter followed the footsteps of the Any person who feels his or
European and Inter-American systems by her rights have been
creating a regional human rights system for violated under the
CONTRASTING Africa. The Charter shares many features
with other regional instruments, but also has
Convention by a state party
can take a case to the
FEAUTURES notable unique characteristics concerning Court. Judgments finding
the norms it recognizes and also its supervisory violations are binding on
mechanism the States concerned and
they are obliged to execute
them. The Committee of
Ministers of the Council of
Europe monitors the
execution of judgements,
particularly to ensure
payment of the amounts
awarded by the Court to
the applicants in
compensation for the
damage they have
sustained.[3] The
compensations imposed
under ECHR can be large;
in 2014 Russia was ordered
to pay in excess of $2
billion in damages to
former shareholders
of Yukos. [
Article 9 – freedom of
thought, conscience and
religion
We all have the right to hold
religious and other beliefs.
We also have the right to
change these beliefs when
we choose. We should be free
to worship and express our
beliefs both in public and
private spaces.
Article 10 – freedom of
expression
We have the right for us to
hold our own opinions, to
express our views and ideas,
and to share information with
others.
Article 11 – freedom of
assembly and association
We have the right to join with
others to protect our
common interests, to form
trade unions political parties.
Article 14 – prohibition of
discrimination
Our rights should never be
denied to us due to any form
of discrimination, whether
due to our ‘sex, race, colour,
language, religion, political or
other opinion, national or
social origin, association with
a national minority, property,
birth or other status’.
Article 15 – derogation in
time of emergency
A state can choose to ignore
some specific rights in the
ECHR at a time of war or
other emergency threatening
the life of the nation, but any
removal of rights should be
limited to those absolutely
required by the situation. A
state must always make sure
these measures are
consistent with its obligations
under International Law.
Article 16 – restriction on
political activity of non-
nationals
A state can restrict the
political activity of non-
nationals, but this does not
apply to the nationals of EU
member states when in an EU
country.
Article 17 – prohibition of
abuse of rights
Nothing in the ECHR allows
for any state, group or
individual to destroy the
rights and freedoms that the
convention protects.
Article 18 – limitation on
use of restriction of rights
The restrictions allowed by
the convention should not be
applied for any other purpose
than those explained in the
convention itself.
The Convention also contains
a list of protocols which make
amendments to the original
articles. These relate to the
right to property, education,
free elections and many
other issues. To read more
detail about the ECHR take a
look at the Council of
Europe’s webpages for PDF
versions of
the Conventionand Protocol.
These duties are contained in Article 29 and are Chapter V, with a nod to the
balance between rights and
as follows:
duties enshrined in the
DUTIES of The duty to preserve the harmonious
earlier American Declaration
of the Rights and Duties of
development of the family.
the To serve the national community by placing
both physical and intellectual abilities at its
Man, points out that
individuals have
individuals service.
Not to compromise the security of the State.
responsibilities as well as
rights.