We have been witnessing various human rights violations that are occurring every day across the globe as we know that the concept of Human rights is, in itself, a broad category and contains a bundle of rights under it. There are various issues, topics that are brought under the ambit of human rights as a whole. These human rights, as we see in today’s world, have been subjected to vulnerability because of various socio, political, and even economic issues that occur in human life. In order to stop or at least reduce its probability of violations, we, as a society through the role of government, create a body or commission to take care and look out for all that happens to society from the socio-political angle. Every country has its own human rights commission and roles to play. In that way, the European Commission of Human rights is one such body constituted through a convention for the betterment and protection of rights of an individual within the European continent. This article will look into the European Commission of human rights in general and relevant matters connected therewith.

Source for its establishment:

In order to know what is the role and purpose of the constitution of the European Commission on Human Rights, we should first note the source from where it has gained its foundation. This is because of the fact that it is termed as ‘commission’ and not any other organization. So, like the Human rights commission in India, in Europe, it is the European Commission of Human Rights. The European Commission of Human Rights was established through a convention that was signed and ratified by the member countries of the European Union. Totally 27 countries came together to give effect to this convention called The European Convention for Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. This convention was signed by the Council of Europe in Rome in the year 1950, and it came into effect in 1953.

But, what was the reason to come up with this convention first? The reason for adopting such a convention was the same and in line with Indian constituent assembly members. It is nothing but to effectuate the UN’s declaration of Human rights, that is Universal Declaration of Human rights. One of their objectives is “to take the first steps for the collective enforcement of certain of the rights stated in the Universal Declaration”

Like Indian Constitution framers, European Union also felt to inculcate those provisions such as the Right to life, freedom, etc into their continental laws as well. So, the ultimate motive was to confer these rights. We, Indians, also have adopted the UDHR principles and inserted them into our constitutional provisions such as articles 21, 19, etc.

European Commission of Human Rights:

So it is clear that the commission was established through the above-mentioned convention adopted in 1950 post-second world war. Few of the provisions in the convention deals with the constitution, procedure, and admissible matters before the commission. In that matter, Section II Article 19 of the convention deals with the establishment of European Human rights courts and specifies the establishment of the European Commission of Human rights. Both are nominally different in nature but have the same composition as that of court. The composition shall be looked at in the following paragraph.

Article 19 reads as follows,

“To ensure the observance of the engagements undertaken by the High Contracting Parties in the Convention and the Protocols thereto, there shall be set up a European Court of Human Rights, hereinafter referred to as “the Court”. It shall function on a permanent basis.”

Unlike other bodies that are constituted under any of the treaties, this commission has no obligations on the treaty and the country states. They make sure all the states and member countries are in line with the human rights provisions. The commission just overlooks all their activities as a supreme body. In case of any non-compliance or violations of the provisions, then they step in to investigate the issue. All the issues shall be filtered only by the European Commission of Human rights, and only if they authorize the same shall it go to the European court for adjudication of matters. It does not consider itself as an adjudicator like in the case of European courts. Rather it is just an agent of the convention because of the fact that it obliges itself towards the convention and acts in the interests of the conventions and its objects.

Composition of Commission under the convention:

We have seen the functions and the nature of the European Commission on Human rights. It is important to note the composition of the commission. Article 20 of the Convention on Human rights and freedoms deal with the composition. They are the judges who will preside over it. Article 20 states that the number of judges shall be equal to the number of parties that would be dealt with during the same.

Article 21 of the convention deals with the criteria to hold the office of the commission. Candidates shall be less than the age of 65 years, and they shall hold the office in their individual capacity after being qualified to be the judge of the commission under the convention.

Whereas article 22 of the convention gives the mode of election of these judges mentioned under article 21 of the convention. They shall be elected by the legislative assembly that is the council of Europe.

Conclusion:

Having noted the articles and the purpose of the convention and the commission, the most crucial area to know is the recent developments and the current status of human rights reports in the European countries. So, even if there is not many problems that were arising in those countries, these commissions have been obligated to follow and abide by the same to ensure the protection of human rights. Reports on the Human rights status should be given more importance to ensure the current level of protection.