TNAG-0918-FCO40-1129-Human-rights-in-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 38

INTRODUCTION

The European Convention on Human Rights, signed on 4th November 1950, came into force on 3rd September 1953. It has now been ratified by all the member States of the Council of Europe. A First Protocol to the Convention, now binding upon the same Contracting States, was signed on 20th March 1952 and came into force on 18th May 1954.

Three further Protocols were concluded in 1963, the Second Protocol conferring on the Court of Human Rights the competence to give advisory opinions in certain circum- stances; the Third Protocol amending Articles 29, 30 and 34 of the Convention, relating to the procedure of the Commis- sion of Human Rights; and the Fourth Protocol securing four additional rights and freedoms not included in the earlier texts. A Fifth Protocol was concluded in January 1966, amending the procedure for the election of the members of the Commission and the Court. Protocols Nos. 2 and 3 enter- ed into force on 21 September 1970, Protocol No. 4 on 2 May 1968 and Protocol No. 5 on 20 December 1971.

The texts of the Convention, as amended by Protocols Nos. 3 and 5 and of Protocols Nos. 1, 2 and 4, are included in this booklet. A chart showing which States have ratified the Convention and Protocols and made optional declara- tions recognising the right of individual petition and the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court is given in an appendix.

The Convention, conceived in the framework of the unification of the democratic States of Europe, is naturally concerned primarily with the protection of those rights which are today accepted as the basis of a democratic society while at the same time providing adequate safeguards to permit the State to maintain and protect its democratic institutions. The Convention thus deals almost exclusively with civil and political rights, while economic and social rights are protect- ed by a separate instrument: the European Social Charter,

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signed in Turin on 18th October 1961, which entered into force on 26th February 1965.

The following rights are covered by the collective guarantee of the Contracting Parties to the Convention: the right to life; the right to liberty and security of person; free- dom from imprisonment for debt; the right to the fair admin- istration of justice (the right most frequently invoked before the organs of the Convention); the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence; the right to free- dom of thought, conscience and religion; the right to free- dom of expression and opinion; freedom of assembly and association, including the right to form trade unions; the right to marry and found a family ; the right of persons whose rights set forth in the Convention are violated to an effective remedy before a national authority, notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity; the right of property; the right to education, which is defined as follows: "No person shall be denied the right to education. In the exercise of any functions which it as- sumes 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 philo- sophical convictions"; an undertaking by States to hold free elections at reasonable intervals; freedom of movement and the choice of one's residence; freedom from expulsion from, and the right to enter one's own country; prohibition of the collective expulsion of aliens; prohibition of torture and of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; prohibition of slavery, servitude and forced labour; prohibition of retro- active criminal legislation; prohibition of discrimination on any ground in the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in the Convention.

Many of these rights and freedoms may be subject to limitations on grounds such as public order, public safety and the protection of the rights and freedoms of others; but the limitations are carefully formulated and, in general, only permitted when they are prescribed by law and necessary in a democratic society.

The original feature of the Convention, however, does not lie in the fact that it confirms a number of fundamental rights of the individual on an international scale. Convinced that rights without remedies are of little value, the authors