General presentation

Information documents

European Convention - A living instrument

This is an educational publication on the Convention which presents the Convention, its development and its Articles and Protocols in an easy-to-read style.

The ECHR in 50 questions

The "ECHR in 50 questions" answers frequently asked questions on the Convention and the Court.

This pamphlet, describing the various stages of the procedure by which the Court examines an application, is intended to answer the main questions that applicants might ask, especially once their application has been sent to the Court.

Questions and Answers

The "Questions and Answers" brochure is provided for the benefit of potential applicants.

The Court in brief

The "Court in brief" brochure is an introduction to the Court and the key dates in its history. It gives a short summary of the Convention and its guarantees and prohibitions.

European Convention on Human Rights

The translations into non-official languages come from various sources. Only the English and French versions are authentic.

Albanian
Arabic (without Prot. 15 & 16)
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Catalan
Chinese
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Estonian
French
Finnish
Georgian
German
Greek
Hungarian
Icelandic
Irish (without Prot. 1, 4, 6, 7, 12, 13 & 16)
Italian
Japanese
Latvian
Lithuanian
Macedonian
Maltese
Montenegrin
Norwegian
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Slovak
Slovenian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
Ukrainian

Case-processing flow chart before the Court

This flow chart indicates the progress of a case by judicial formation.

Life of an application

The flow chart indicates the progress of a case through the different judicial formations. In the interests of readability, it does not include certain stages in the procedure – such as communication of an application to the respondent State, consideration of a re-hearing request by the Panel of the Grand Chamber and friendly settlement negotiations.

Simplified Convention

This simplified version of selected Articles from the Convention tends to present the main rights and freedoms.

Useful link

Not to be confused

Top of page

Human Rights Building

Building

The Court is identifiable across the world by the symbol of the building in which it is housed: the Human Rights Building.

46 judges and about 650 Registry staff work there to ensure respect for the human rights of 700 million Europeans in the 46 member States of the Council of Europe that have ratified the Convention.

Designed by the British architect Lord Richard Rogers (2007 Pritzker Prize Laureate), this highly symbolic and emblematic building is part of the French cultural heritage and was awarded the “Architecture contemporaine remarquable” label in 2015 (this label replaced the previous one known as "Patrimoine du XXe siècle", abolished on 7 July 2016).

Anniversaries

30 years

The 30th anniversary of the Human Rights Building

The Court is based in Strasbourg, in the Human Rights Building.

To mark the 30th anniversary of the Human Rights Building, the Court will stage an exhibition in June 2025 representing the history, architecture and use of the building since its opening in 1995.

25 years

The 25th anniversary of the Human Rights Building

A stamp commemorating 25th anniversary of the Human Rights Building was lauched in 2020.

20 years

The 20th anniversary of the Human Rights Building

The Court is based in Strasbourg, in the Human Rights Building.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the Human Rights Building, the Court staged an exhibition in September 2015, inaugurated by President Spielmann in the presence, among others, of Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, and Ivan Harbour, who worked on the Building’s design and is now a partner in the architectural firm Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.