Calls Grow Across Europe to Reform Postwar Human Rights Convention

A growing bloc of European leaders argued that protections no longer matched today’s challenges.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, eastern France on Apr. 9, 2024. Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images

Across Europe, voices are growing to reinterpret or reform the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), a postwar cornerstone now under strain from immigration pressures and debates over sovereignty versus the authority of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg.

Created in 1950 out of Winston Churchill’s vision for a democratic Europe, the ECHR is one of the continent’s oldest binding human rights treaties.