80) The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms - the founding document of the Council of Europe.

The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) was adopted in 1952. Traditional gender stereotypes remain deeply rooted in European culture and manifest themselves in daily practise. As a result, men and women still have unequal opportunities. The Council of Europe actively addresses gender-based violence and it recognizes equality between women and men as a fundamental human right. The ECHR has recently been litigated quite heavily in the area of economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to education, as you will note from the number of relevant cases. (Link to cases)

Article 14 The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.

Optional Protocol 1 of the European Convention for the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms - Enforcement of certain Rights and Freedoms not included in Section I of the Convention

 Article 2 - Right to education

No person shall be denied the right to education. In the exercise of any functions which it assumes in relation to education and to teaching, the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.

European Social Charter (revised)

Article E – Non-discrimination The enjoyment of the rights set forth in this Charter shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national extraction or social origin, health, association with a national minority, birth or other status.

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and was also assisted in its work by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR). It was the UN's principal mechanism and international forum concerned with the promotion and protection of human rights.

On 15 March 2006, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to replace UNCHR with the UN Human Rights Council

81) The fundamental rights proclaimed by the European Convention on Human Rights. Handling the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights, as contained in the European Convention on Human Rights.

The European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is a treaty signed in 1950 by the then members of the Council of Europe. In this way, it predates the Euopean Communities and Union and arises from a quite different organisation. The two are linked, however, in that adherence to the Convention is now effectively a condition of membership of the EU. Additionally, the European Court of Justice refers to the Convention which influences its decisions, even though the EU is not a member of the Convention. Note that the European Court of Human Rights (described below) is not the same as the European Court of Justice. The judges are different and one sits in Starsbourg, the other on Luxembourg. The European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is the most important instrument of international law to emanate from the Council of Europe. The Convention contains both substantive and procedural rights. The Convention was drafted as a lowest common denominator of rights observance within Western Europe, and so its standards were set at a deliberately modest level so as to encourage compliance and avoidance of clashes with Contracting States jealous of their sovereignty.

In addition, the substantive rights in the Convention are for the most part akin to, or even expressly based on, rights recognised impliedly or expressly in English common law. Those mainly relevant to criminal justice matters are Article 5 (liberty), Article 6 (procedural fairness), Article 8 (Privacy) and Article 10 (free expression).

At the same time, the potential for invocation of the Convention is tremendous, especially as the adjudicative agencies adopt a teleological and dynamic approach in order to realise the fundamental objects and purposes of the Convention in a changing world, namely the protection of individual human rights and the promotion of pluralistic democracy. Accordingly, the Court will demand that national laws be in line with, and proportionate to, these objects, and it has adopted an autonomous jurisprudence as to the interpretation of the Convention which does not simply borrow from national viewpoints.