How has the European Convention on Human Rights contributed to Dissertation

How has the European Convention on Human Rights contributed to international human rights law - Dissertation Example The researcher states that the twentieth century became a landmark in the evolution of the international human rights law. The atrocities of the Nazi regime and mass exterminations of humans during the two world wars led the world to review its attitudes toward the fundamental human rights. The European Convention on Human Rights was created with the goal of extending the coverage of the international human rights laws on European countries, enforcing compliance with the foundational standards of human rights protection, and ensuring greater integration among the European states. Since its inception, human rights protection has become the main aspect of states’ legislative and judicial performance in Europe. The contribution of the European Convention on Human Rights to the international human rights law is difficult to overestimate. The convention meets the standards of subsidiarity in the international human rights law and creates the foundation for interpreting the most con troversial emerging human rights issues. Simultaneously, the convention by itself and its principles are not without controversy. Despite the significance of the European Convention on Human Rights, its effectiveness and results greatly depend upon the political and social atmosphere in European states; many states choose to enforce the Convention only for the purpose of membership in the European Union. As a result, the effectiveness of the European Convention on Human Rights is more virtual than real and does not extend beyond the actual court cases to tackle with the discrimination against the fundamental human rights.... Another reason was that European states needed greater unity and integration, and a convention similar to the ECHR could glue the European states in their way to achieving the common economic and social objectives. This being said, the ECHR became the first and, probably, the most significant political and legal achievement of the Council of Europe in 1949 (Ware & Miller 1998). At that time, the Council of Europe was made up of only 10 states (Ware & Miller 1998). Nevertheless, â€Å"every member of the Council of Europe had to accept the principles of the rule of law and of the enjoyment by all persons within its jurisdiction of human rights and fundamental freedoms† (Ware & Miller 1998, p.7). In other words, all member states of the EC had to enforce strict compliance with the principles and premises of the Convention. It is no secret that one of the main goals of the ECHR was European integration (Weil 1963). The philosophy of European integration was rooted in the pre-firs t-world-war conditions of politics, which suggested that fragmentation, separation, and opposition weakened European states in the fight for peace and stability. The idea of uniting Europe lost its relevance between the two world wars, and during the Second World War Hitler managed to unite Europe by force (Weil 1963). However, as soon as the hostilities were over, and Winston Churchill became a leader of the European movement toward peace, the idea of building a union similar to that in the United States, was revived (Weil 1963). It should be noted, that Britain made one of the major contributions to the development and implementation of the ECHR: the final version of the convention owed a lot to British ideas of human rights and European statehood (Ware & Miller 1998). Simultaneously, when