The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), shaped in the aftermath of the Second World War, was created to ensure that the horrors of the past would never be repeated. It helps ensure that individuals and communities can live safely, practise their religion, and express their identity without fear. It places obligations on states to protect people’s dignity and security, and ensures that these protections cannot simply be removed by political pressure.
At a time when the ability to live openly as Jews feels increasingly fragile, debates about the strength of our human rights protections take on renewed urgency. As we celebrate culture and community, European governments have adopted the Chișinău Declaration – a political statement that seeks to influence how human rights law is applied in the context of migration.
- The European Convention recognises that States have the right to control the entry, residence, and removal of people from other countries.
- The European Court of Human Rights cannot decide a case unless the case has been previously examined by the domestic courts.
- The proportion of applications submitted to the Court that concern immigration matters is extremely low.
- In the past year, immigration applications accounted for only 1.5% of all applications, most were found to be inadmissible, and violations were found in only 6% of these cases (300 cases).
- In the UK, since 1980, the European Court has ruled against the UK in only 13 removal cases and just four of those concerned the right to family life, which is at the centre of the discussions.
- The Court has only ruled three times that the UK’s immigration rules violate the European Convention in the past 45 years.
While the declaration reaffirms commitment to the Convention and the practical impact of this initiative may be limited, it reflects a broader and more concerning trend. The erosion of rights often begins with marginalised groups, and the Jewish community knows all too well that when the rights of some are weakened, the rights of all are ultimately at risk. Undermining universal human rights for political ends should concern us all.
What can we do about this?
Lawyers and academics wrote to the Council of Europe voicing their concerns. Even the European Court of Human Rights provided a fact sheet. René Cassin was one of 24 organisations that supported a Call to Action initiated by the British Institute of Human Rights in late February.
Building knowledge about the practical use and impact of human rights, in everyday life and for the benefit of individuals and our community as a whole, is important. Whether through a targeted workshop, offered by René Cassin, to embed the UK’s Human Rights Act in Jewish community support services, of which Article 8 is a core part of our training. Or through the establishment of the Jewish Everyday Rights Forum – a growing network of Jewish welfare organisations committed to improving socio-economic rights through shared learning and collaboration. We can all recognise the importance of the European Convention as it was created to prevent what happened to our parents and grandparents from happening again. It provides a framework for ensuring that individuals are not overpowered by the state.
You can read the full briefing paper here
