Saturday, 26 May 2018

10 Years ECHR Blog

Today, exactly ten years ago, on 26 of May 2008, I started the ECHR Blog. The idea for the blog had come up in conversations with a few friends and colleagues, in which we noted that there was a gap in the, at the time, still newly emerging blogosphere. There were blogs on international law, on European law, on human rights, but none on the ECHR specifically. And thus I embarked that day on an endeavor of which I had no clue that I would still be at it a decade later. In the initial post, I expressed the hope that the blog could be a "portal to information on the European Court of Human Right and its judgments and decisions." 

I started to post on case-law, on new publications, political developments and academic events, all related to the European Convention on Human Rights and its Court. And after a few months, I heard - to my slight apprehension, to be honest - that not just fellow academics, but even some judges at the Court itself were reading the posts. Over these ten years, I have posted 956 posts (counting the current one) and the blog has attracted over 2.2 million pageviews from across the globe, including from states where human rights information is not always readily accessible or even simply blocked. 

These ten years of keeping up and developing the blog would not have been possible without the help of countless people. First off, the pioneer legal bloggers that inspired me, the other law-related blogs that helped me link up to a wider community, the guest bloggers who were willing to share their insights on Strasbourg developments, and the many, many readers who fed this blog with news, publications, event announcements and much more. It is a truism, but without my readers, I would not have been able to keep this up. A big thank you to all of you - your exhortations, kind messages, information and simply interest and visits to the blog, have helped to keep it going. For, I can reveal, that there is no army of academic slaves working invisibly to run the blog (as several people asked over the years) - I have always been doing the postings myself. From the days of being a beginning lecturer up to my current position, this has of course become increasingly challenging, because of many other obligations - and as some avid readers must have noticed the frequency has decreased over the years, keeping pace with an increasingly demanding job. But it is still a joy to do and it has intensely enriched my academic life in many ways, making new friends along the road!

Please keep sending me your ECHR-related information and feel free to reach out to me with your remarks on the blog. Your input is the vital lifeline of the ECHR Blog!