European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights is a legal institution created through the power of the European Convention on Human Rights. The European Court of Human Rights can provide for complaints brought by residents, citizens, or any people otherwise involved with a country which is signatory to the aforementioned Convention, which extends to members of the international Council of Europe body. Despite the wide-ranging title, the European Court of Human Rights should not be confused with the administrative boundaries or powers of the European Union, which is not as widely applicable as the enforcement powers of the European Court of Human Rights. The European Court of Human Rights has been open as a forum for hearing human rights concerns since it first went into effect in 1998. In this regard, the European Court of Human Rights was brought about as a replacement for other organizations which had previously held roughly overlapping judicial functions, as can be noted to include the 1954-instituted European Commission of Human Rights. While a body known as the European Court of Human Rights had previously been in effect for carrying out these same functions in Europe, its organization was changed through the adoption of the Protocol 11 Amendment. Up to 2010 from the period of its initial founding, the European Court of Human Rights was observed to have answered 5,968 individual complaints arising over human rights issues. Ratification of the European Court of Human Rights Treaty is compulsory for membership in the Council of Europe. Forty-seven judges administer the European Court of Human Rights.