Our Public Resource on the Convention's Future

As ECHR Blog editorial team, we have created a dedicated page, entitled 'Future of the Convention', on which we keep track of the debates about the future of the Court and the Convention which started with the open letter of nine heads of government, focusing on migration but ranging broader, on 22 May 2025. It is meant to be a public-service resource for relevant documents and blog comments on these debates published on our blog. It includes relevants documents from states, the Council of Europe, academics and NGOs. We will keep adding resources to this page in the coming months. Keep an eye on the blog for commentaries on the current debates and take a look at the resource page!

Rolling Call for ECHR Blog Guest Posts

We would like to inform you that the ECHR Blog warmly welcomes guest posts on an ongoing basis.

Guest posts can cover topics such as new ECtHR judgments, recent changes relating to the EC(t)HR, and developments at the Council of Europe relating to the ECHR system. You can also suggest a theme and authors for a blog seminar, comprising multiple posts on the same topic.

The blog’s editors aim to respond to any submission within two working days, and to post a blog, following after a round of revisions, as soon as possible. Please read our submission guidelines for more information before submitting your blog. 

The editors are looking forward to reading your blog post!

Event on the ECHR and the Chisinau Declaration 2026

On Wednesday 4 February 2026 from 13:00-14:00 CET (12:00-13:00 UK time) the Centre for European Law and Internationalisation of the University of Leicester is organizing an online event with the AGORA Group entitled 'The ECHR and the Chisinau Declaration 2026: What is at Stake for Article 3?'. The event will bring together leading experts to discuss the impact on the protection offered by Article 3 ECHR of the Joint Statement to the Conference of Ministers of Justice of the Council of Europe on issues related to migration and the role of the Convention. This Joint Statement was signed by 27 countries in December 2025. 

Here is a description of the event:

'Last December, twenty‑seven member states delivered a Joint Statement to the Conference of Ministers of Justice of the Council of Europe. Issued in the lead‑up to the forthcoming Chisinau Declaration (May 2026), the statement called for significant potential shifts in the interpretation and application of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This initiative raises profound questions about the future scope and protection afforded by Article 3.

CELI will host an online AGORA event bringing together leading experts to examine the legal, human rights, and policy implications. The discussion will explore the challenges posed to Article 3 and the potential broader consequences for the Convention system.

Speakers:

Professor Natasa Mavronicola, Professor of Human Rights Law at University of Birmingham.

Therese Rytter Legal director at DIGNITY | Former Vice-Pres, European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) | Steering Committee of International Accountability Platform for Belarus.'

The link to the event can be found here. 

New Book on Intellectual Property Before the ECtHR

Elena Izyumenko (University of Amsterdam) and Christophe Geiger (Luiss University) have recently published a new monograph entitled 'Human Rights and Intellectual Property Before the European Courts: A Case Commentary on the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights'. The book provides an analysis of case-law of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union on intellectual property disputes. The book covers the right to property and the freedom of expression, but also less discussed human rights in intellectual property cases. 

Here is the abstract:

'This unique reference work serves as a comprehensive guide to how Europe’s top courts – the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) – address the intersection of intellectual property (IP) and human rights. It traces the evolution of the courts’ jurisprudence in these fields and explores how human and fundamental rights including freedom of expression, right to property, freedom to conduct a business, privacy, and the right to a fair trial can influence copyright, trademarks, patents, and other IP rights.

Key Features:

● Over 200 cases analysed, many previously overlooked or untranslated, enabling new lines of academic inquiry

● Supports informed policy development that balances innovation, commercial interests, and fundamental rights, while proactively identifying and addressing legal risks in public regulation

● Presents practical guidance and legal reasoning for handling IP cases involving human rights claims, acting as a guide to precedent from the CJEU and ECtHR

● Side-by-side analysis of both European courts with thorough cross-referencing and an extensive study of relevant case law from 1952 to 2025, to provide a clear view of European courts’ evolving approach

This in-depth Commentary is a vital resource for legal practitioners, researchers and policymakers in European law, human rights, and intellectual property law. NGOs and civil society organizations will also benefit from its tools for building rights-based arguments.'

New Judges Elected in Respect of Cyprus and the Netherlands

Yesterday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) elected two new judges to the ECtHR, who will serve a nine-year term (Article 23(1) ECHR): Nicholas Emiliou in respect of Cyprus and Corinna Wissels in respect of the Netherlands. 

Nicholas Emiliou, as any judge, was elected from a list of three candidates nominated by the state. Emiliou received 121 of the 152 votes cast; the other two candidates received 26 and 5 votes. He will replace Judge Serghides. The prospective Strasbourg judge is currently Advocate General at the CJEU. During his term as AG, he has delivered 80 opinions, including opinions touching on human rights matters. He previously also worked as a diplomat and, in that capacity, participated in the Committee of Ministers’ Deputies (DH) meetings on the execution of ECtHR judgments. 

The PACE elected Corinna Wissels in respect of the Netherlands. She received 118 of the 162 votes cast, while the two other candidates received 42 and 2 votes. Wissels will replace Judge Schukking.  She is currently a State Councillor at the Council of State of the Netherlands (Administrative Jurisdiction Division), where she also deals with migration law questions. Previously, she held various roles, including the head of the European Law Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and represented the Netherlands at the CJEU in that capacity. 

The PACE Committee on the Election of Judges to the ECtHR recommended, ‘by a narrow majority’, Emiliou as the most qualified candidate. However, the Committee recommended, ‘by a majority’, another person than Wissels in respect of the Netherlands. It may be interesting to know what the Committee sought to determine when interviewing the (Dutch) candidates:   

“whether the applicants had an in-depth knowledge of the ECHR and the areas of Dutch law that are relevant to ECtHR cases, including criminal law and immigration law. It also looked into whether applicants had relevant international work experience, whether they had a good awareness of the different legal cultures of the member States of the Council of Europe and whether they could be expected to operate effectively in such an international environment. In addition, the committee considered whether the applicants had a sufficient knowledge of and connection to the Netherlands’ constitutional order, including the role of ECtHR cases in the Dutch legal system and administration of justice, and whether they had a vision of the tasks performed by and the functioning of the ECtHR, both now and in the future, and the way these things relate to the national legal order. Applicants were also assessed on whether they were capable of shouldering the heavy workload of the ECtHR. Finally, the committee assessed whether the candidates were willing to move to Strasbourg”. 

We congratulate the newly elected judges and wish them wisdom in these challenging times.

New Edition ECHR Teaching Resources

The Council of Europe has just published the newest, 2026 edition of The European Convention on Human Rights in practice - Teaching Resources. This open access online booklet is geared towards teachers, assumedly in secondary education (but also useful potentially for non-law students in university education). The Council of Europe describes it as a "dynamic tool for pupils about learning and understanding their rights". The 46-page booklet for its 2026 edition was reviewed by Ali Bozkaya and Oleg Soldatov. It includes basic and accessible information about the Council of Europe, the ECHR and the rights included in it, and the Court. This is the abstract:

"Raising awareness of human rights among young people is one of the Council of Europe’s most important missions. Help your students to forge a democratic tomorrow with these highly accessible teaching resources.

This instructive brochure gives a comprehensive overview of the European Convention on Human Rights and the different rights contained within it. It also details the work of the European Court of Human Rights and how its judgments affect our daily lives. Finally, it includes case studies and practical exercises  for group activities - students can discover and share how human rights have a major impact on each and every one of us.

With both a theoretical and practical content, the brochure provides a dynamic resource to help teachers foster awareness of human rights. It will be a valuable resource for teaching professionals, volunteers and youth leaders."

ECHR Travaux Préparatoires Open Access Online

It has been some years in the making, but a key set of documents, the Convention's Travaux Préparatoires, have now been made open access online, as a result of a collaboration beween the European Court of Human Rights and De Gruyter Brill Publishers. Hundreds of researchers who have written about one aspect or another of the ECHR must have held the physical volumes, published originally in the 1970s and 1980s, in their hands at several points, usually in their local library. The fact that they are now not only accessible online, but also in open access and in a searchable format, is very good news indeed!

The eight volumes Travaux  can be accessed either through the publisher's website (in a pdf per volume) or on the Court's Knowledge-Sharing Platform. Please access each volume through here. In addition, the registry has made this very useful chart with links to the respective parts of the Travaux, organised by Article of the Convention. History may not repeat itself, but it can become more accessible.

As the Court explain in its press release on the launch of the online open access version:

'The “Preparatory Work” includes the various documents produced during the drafting of the Convention and its first Protocol, including reports of discussions in the Consultative Assembly and its Committee on Legal and Administrative Questions. These foundational documents offer valuable insight into the intentions of the European political leaders who, in the aftermath of the war, sought to enshrine a shared commitment to human dignity, freedom, and justice. Understanding why the Convention was brought into being is essential to appreciating the values it continues to protect today.'

CDDH Secretariat Publishes Possible Elements for the Chișinău Declaration on Migration

On 6 January 2026, the Council of Europe's Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH) published a 20-page document prepared by its Secretariat and detailing elements for the political declaration on migration to be prepared at the 135th Session of the Committee of Ministers (to be held in Chișinău on 14-15 May 2026). The document contains "possible basic elements" for the declaration, including references to other political declarations adopted over the years. It also contains an appendix describing the system of the ECHR, its provisions relevant to context of migration, and an analysis of their application. 

The first part of the document makes reference to the past political declarations adopted under the auspices of the Council of Europe, namely those at Reykjavik, Copenhagen, Brussels, Brighton, Izmir and Interlaken. It also recalls the conclusions adopted at the Informal Ministerial Conference of 10 December 2025, the meeting convened by Secretary-General Alain Berset in response to the "letter of nine" from States demanding reforms of the ECtHR's migration case-law. That letter attracted concerns from human rights groups, as well as arguments that it had little to do with the Court's actual case-law on migration. 

To pave the way for a political declaration on the issue, the CDDH Secretariat document of 6 January suggests content for the Chișinău Declaration that, among others:

• recalls the importance and contribution of the Convention system and the importance of the role of the Court in supervising State compliance with the ECHR;  
• reaffirms States' commitment to the system and rejects "attacks at high political levels on the rights protected by the Convention and the judgments of the Court seeking to safeguard them" (citing the Reykjavik Declaration); 
• emphasizes the principles of subsidiarity, national implementation, the margin of appreciation, shared responsibility; and State sovereignty;
• welcomes the Court's strict approach to admissibility criteria and jurisdiction, and its judicial dialogue with domestic courts; 
• affirms the Court's authoritative and balanced interpretation of the ECHR and the interpretative authority of its judgments; 
• underlines States' obligation under Article 34 ECHR not to hinder the exercise of the right to individual application and their "unconditional obligation to abide by the final judgments of the Court in any case to which they are parties"; 
• recalls that States can seek referrals to the Grand Chamber and file third-party interventions; 
• expresses concern about "the serious and complex challenges posed by irregular migration, such as instrumentalisation of migration, smuggling of migrants, trafficking in human beings and other criminal activities in this context"; and "the challenges related to the expulsion and return of foreigners convicted of serious offences, while respecting human rights";
• on Article 3 ECHR, recalls that the ECHR "does not purport to be a means of requiring the States Parties to impose Convention standards on other States, such that treatment which might violate Article 3 of the Convention because of an act or omission of a Contracting State might not attain the minimum level of severity which is required for there to be a violation of Article 3 in an expulsion or extradition case", and welcomes "the Court’s caution in finding that removal from the territory of a State Party would be contrary to Article 3 of the Convention".

This last point, which has already been flagged as threating a reversal of the Court's established Article 3 case-law, is reiterated in the annex. That annex additionally notes that the Court's case-law allows removals to third States (para. 31) or under diplomatic assurances (para. 32) and that violations of Article 3 by removals of seriously ill persons are limited to exceptional circumstances (para. 33). It also clarifies the contours of the Court's expulsion-related case-law under Articles 5, 6, 8 and 13 ECHR, as well as Article 4 of Protocol No. 4 concerning collective expulsions and Article 1 of Protocol No. 7. It notes that other international treaties also contain human rights provisions related to migration (emphasizing the ICCPR, the UN Refugee Convention and the UN Convention against Torture, to which all CoE Member States are parties), and references the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. 

The document then examines the interpretation and application of the Convention in the context of specific factual situations, namely: 

• irregular migration (discussing mass arrivals by sea and land, reception and detention conditions and 'instrumentalisation of migration', which although not a legal term has been raised in three cases currently pending before the Grand Chamber concerning alleged pushbacks at the Belarusian borders, with a hearing in all three cases held on 12 February 2025); and 
• the situation of foreigners convicted of serious offences, listing relevant elements for considering such cases and noting that the Court here conducts 'a process-based review'. 

For previous discussion of the 'letter of nine' process on this blog, see here.



Amendment: an earlier version of this post noted that the CDDH had published the report in question. The post has been amended to clarify that this document was prepared by the CDDH Secretariat for the January 2026 extraordinary meeting of the CDDH. The report of that meeting indicates that the CDDH exchanged views on the issues to be addressed in the political declaration, with several members expressing appreciation for the possible elements set out in the document discussed in this post. The meeting report further states that the CDDH "agreed that it would address the following issues: expulsion of foreign nationals convicted of serious criminal offences and extradition of foreign nationals, including issues under Articles 3 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention); instrumentalisation of migration; mass arrivals of migrants by land and sea; innovative solutions to address migration; and decision-making in migration cases. The CDDH underlined that its approach to these issues must be based on respect for the independence and integrity of the Court and the authority of the Court’s judgments, avoiding any impression of giving instructions to the Court" (para 10 of the meeting report). The CDDH's work on this remains ongoing, with two further extraordinary meetings planned for February and March 2026 in order to allow preparation of an outcome document.

New ECHR Blog Year

Our very best wishes for the new year to all our readers. Amidst the whirlwind of international news and the flouting of international law and human and fundamental rights, this blog will continue to provide news, thorough analysis and announcements on everything related to the ECHR and its Court. As announced at the end of last year, we do so with an expanded and energetic editorial team. 

With 80 blogposts last year and over 770,000 pageviews last year, we look back on another successful year for the blog. Many of our most read posts were guest bulges and we warmly invite such submissions. Please also continue to send us your announcements of ECHR-related events, publications, workshops and conferences - we are happy to inform a large audience about them.

These were our top ten most read posts in the past year, 2025:

1. Jasmine Sommardal, A Landmark Judgment: Three Crucial Aspects of Cannavacciuolo and Others v. Italy
2. Antoine Buyse, Nine States Call for 'Open-Minded Conversation' on ECHR and Migration
3. Jasmine Sommardal, Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia – A Tour de Force in Applying the Convention as Part of International Law
4. Jasmine Sommardal, The Court’s Key Cases in 2024: Part I
5. Lena Riemer, Inadmissibility Decision in S.S. and Others v. Italy: A Missed Opportunity in Migration Control Externalization 
6. Antoine Buyse, The Role of Human Dignity in ECHR Case-Law
7. Margarita S. Ilieva, L. and Others v. France: Sexist Judicial Bias, Himpathy and Victim-Blaming
8. Dragoș Călin, Danileţ v. Romania: A Plea for Judges' Freedom of Expression 
9. Lize Glas, An Exceptional Ministerial Conference on the ECHR and ‘Migration Challenges’
10. Jasmine Sommardal, Reflections on the Court’s Key Case Law of 2024: Part II

Wishing our readers a very good start of the new year from the ECHR Blog's editorial team!

New Book on the Impact of European Human Rights Bodies, Including the ECtHR, on Penal Policies

Gaëtan Cliquennois (University of Rennes) has just published a new monograph entitled 'The Impact of European Human Rights Bodies on Penal Policies'. The book provides an analysis of the impact of the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union on national penal and detention policies. This is the abstract:

'A new framework for penal and prison policies in Europe has been progressively established by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Union (EU) to protect the human rights of detainees in Europe. European countries have reacted in very diverse ways to this influence. This book looks at the evolving content of case law and European Standards and their effects through a range of national reactions, processes and policies in different European countries.'