The European Human Rights System

This article presents the historical, organizational, and bibliographic information needed to research the Council of Europe’s regulation of human rights. It begins with an explanation of the reasons for the organization’s founding and then describes its statute, its structure, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the history of the changes in the treaty’s procedures, and its enforcement mechanisms. The final section provides similar treatment for another, less well known, of the Council’s human rights treaties, the European Social Charte