European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

European Convention on Human Rights, more fully, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, a charter designed to further the goals of the European Council. Its members accept that citizens should enjoy human rights. Civil and political freedoms are enumerated – the right to life; freedom from torture or inhuman treatment; freedom from slavery and forced labour; the right to liberty and freedom from detention save in accord with the law; the right to fair administration of justice; respect for privacy and the family; the right to peaceful assembly; the right not to be discriminated against. Over the years protocols have added new rights – the protection of property; a parent's right to choose education; a right to free elections; liberty from prison for inability to meet a contract; free movement; the right not to be expelled from one's natural home. Many of the rights are subject to provisos on the basis of public order, public security and the need to guard the freedom of others. The Convention is upheld in the European Court of Human Rights. The law now applies in the UK as a result of the Scotland Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 1998 (from October 2000). Accordingly, decisions of the Court will now be influential and in due course applicable in the UK. Recent examples involving the UK are on peaceful protest (Steel and Others v. UK [1998] TLR 575); on the right to the privacy of one's home (McLeod v. UK [1998] TLR 577); chastisement of children as an aspect of cruel or degrading punishment (A. v. UK [1998] TLR 578); on freedom of association (Ahmed and Others v . UK [1998] TLR 581); on the right to a fair hearing in court (Osman v. UK [1998] TLR 681).