EU insists the UK must stay under the ECHR, but won’t sign up itself

This foreign court effectively overrules the UK’s Supreme Court

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2022

Facts4EU.Org summarises the illogical madness behind a non-EU but quasi-EU institution

The Government’s latest attempts to solve the illegal boat migrant crisis created by President Macron’s refusal to take back his migrants hinges on deporting the people who arrive to a processing centre in Rwanda.

It is well-known that this was stopped by UK lawyers appealing to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France.

One single ECHR judge sitting in France one evening overruled the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. Here are some facts about the ECHR which readers might wish to know.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

The European Court of Human Rights – some basic facts

ECHR is based in a grandiose suite of buildings in Strasbourg, France – purpose-built
The whole thing cost a fortune, with over 300,000 sq ft of floor space
The courtroom alone covers over 9,250 sq ft
Context: Average size of an entire property in the UK is circa 730 sq ft – 1/12th the size of the courtroom
There are 46 member countries, 27 of which are EU members

The EU insisted the UK submitted to the rulings of the ECHR
However the EU has not submitted itself
It is not possible to bring any legal case against the EU at the ECHR
It is, however, possible to bring a legal case against the UK
As at 30 June 2023 there were 76,750 pending applications to the court
There have been over 900 cases in total against the UK
Until March 2022 it was still possible for a Russian judge to rule on ‘human rights violations’ in the UK

[Sources: ECHR | EU Commission]

If the ECHR is so independent of the EU, how come it sounds so much like it?

It is often said that the ECHR is part of the Council of Europe, not the European Union. Technically this is true. However we invite readers to study the photograph below, which comes from the ECHR’s website.

If the ECHR is so independent of the EU, readers might question why the main judging chamber of the ECHR has an enormous EU flag on its floor. Yes, it was the EU that appropriated this flag, but why doesn't the ECHR switch to an amalgam of all the flags of countries which are members, including the United Kingdom?

The EU insists the UK must stay under the ECHR, but won’t sign up to it itself

In what must surely be one of the most blatant acts of EU hypocrisy, the EU insisted as part of the UK-EU ‘Trade and Cooperation Agreement’ that the UK remained signed up to the ECHR.

And yet the EU will not sign up itself. Finally in 2013 it reached an agreement to join, but was then blocked by its own court: the Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ). Ten years later the EU is STILL not a member of the ECHR.

Here is what the EU Commission has to say about the EU’s current position:-

“At present, all 46 Council of Europe member states, including the 27 EU Member States, are already parties to the European Convention on Human Rights. However, the EU itself is not. This means that actions of the EU’s institutions, agencies and other bodies cannot currently be challenged at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.”
- European External Action Service (EU Commission), 18 Oct 2021

The latest word on the EU's website is “Negotiations for the accession of the EU to the ECHR were relaunched in September 2020 and are currently ongoing.”

To call this position breathtakingly hypocritical would surely be be an understatement.

Does the UK’s Supreme Court have to obey the ECHR? Yes

It has been suggested by some commentators that the UK does not have to obey the rulings of the ECHR, but merely to treat them as ‘advisory’. Below is what the ECHR has to say about this.

“[The Court’s] judgments are binding on the countries concerned and have led governments to alter their legislation and administrative practice in a wide range of areas.”
- ECHR document, accessed 14 Aug 2022

So, the rulings are indeed binding, according to the ECHR.

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Putin's Russia, ruling on UK ‘human rights violations’

Russia has long been a pariah state when it comes to human rights. The list of atrocities is endless. Readers will remember the killing in London by Russian security services of the dissident Alexander Litvinenko using a radioactive substance, to say nothing of the attack in Salisbury several years later.

Russia has also violated other nations’ territories (eg Crimea, Chechnya, Ukraine) in contravention of international law and yet it continued to be a member of the European Council and have a judge on the ECHR.

Finally last year, Russia was excluded. Incredibly, until March 2022 it was possible for a Russian judge to rule on ‘human rights violations’ in the UK.

‘Rule of law’? – What law?

The UK gave the world the Magna Carta, Habeas Corpus, and the principle of Common Law.

Conversely the ECHR operates under the principle of the Napoleonic code of Corpus Juris, where you are in essence assumed to be guilty, can be held in detention for very long periods, no right to silence, and none of the other rights which the British people take for granted.

The sole British judge on the ECHR was born and educated in Germany

Facts4EU.Org has analysed the judges of the ECHR. We also looked at the ‘seniority’ as defined by the ECHR.

The sole British judge was born and educated in Germany and sits down at No. 20 in terms of precedence, below the judge from the tiny country of Cyprus. He moved to the UK in 1988, after completing legal studies in Germany.

In 2016 ECHR judges were paid €200,000 per annum tax-free. In today’s terms in pounds for a normally-taxed person that would be the equivalent of over £300,000 per year.

Photo right: Judge Eicke, the British judge © ECHR

To put the 'British' judge's position into context, a judge from the tiny principality of Andorra (of which President Macron is the Prince) is 14 places above him in terms of seniority. A judge from Bosnia is 11 places above him. And a judge from Serbia - hardly known for its human rights - is nine places above him.

Observations

It’s difficult to know where to start with the absurdity that is the European Court of Human Rights

Like the European Court of Justice (CJEU) to which the United Kingdom is subservient under the terms of the UK-EU Withdrawal Treaty, the ECHR is a highly-politicised court. You don’t get elected as a judge unless you’re a fully paid-up member of the human rights fraternity.

Facts4EU.Org is non-partisan but we are firmly against the ‘open borders’ and ‘all migrants are refugees’ mentality which exists in most of the Establishment. We believe in looking at the facts.

The EU’s total hypocrisy

Bizarrely, the EU requires all its member countries (which included the UK) to submit to this Court, but then its own ECJ blocked the EU from doing the same thing. It is therefore impossible to take the EU to the ECHR. The UK can be tried and convicted – the EU can’t.

We constantly hear the claim that “The ECHR is not part of the EU”. Really? So why does it have the floor of its main judging chamber carpeted with an enormous EU flag?

The British lion must roar

The United Kingdom has a very proud record in standing up for human rights. Real human rights. We also have a proud record of taking in vast numbers of refugees. It has barely been mentioned in the media, for example, that the UK has already taken in more than 100,000 refugees from Ukraine.

The UK has courts, the High Courts, the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court. We have no need for a foreign court - with some questionable judges sitting on it - to dictate its views to the United Kingdom.

We should stand tall and demand fundamental changes to organisations such as the European Council, the ECHR, and the United Nations and all its innumerable agencies.

If these are not immediately taken seriously we must ultimately withdraw. Resiling from the ECHR would be a good first step.

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[ Sources: ECHR | EU Commission | Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Thurs 10 Aug 2023

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Reader Comments 6

1. Sparky , Thursday, August 10, 2023, 05:33:

No mention of Northern Ireland and the GFA.

2. Major Graham Lear , Thursday, August 10, 2023, 08:29:

1. Sparky, Why should there be? This article is about quite a corrupt EU and an equally corrupt ECHR that does the bidding of the Corrupt EU. it's quite nice to find you are in hand and hand with corruptness and think there is nothing wrong with it. Birds and a feather flock together and all that.

3. NH , Thursday, August 10, 2023, 09:55:

The ECHR has been constantly criticised for it's conflicts of interest and the fact that it is not subject to the control of any judicial body. Many of the judges have been shown to have links to "non government organisations". It has previously been shown that 18 of it's judges had links to George Soros Open Society Foundation a pro Europe anti Brexit organisation. Other linked organisations are Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Intersights.
.
On October 12, 2022, a petition entitled Putting an end to conflicts of interest at the ECHR, signed by 60,000 European citizens, was submitted to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, under Rule 71 of its Rules of Court. Clearly this is not just a UK issue many European Citizens are appalled at being ruled by organisation with huge conflicts of interest.
.
As expected the impartiality of the ECHR is constantly discussed but nothing ever changes, this situation has been going on for years. The UK should take a lead and demand the ECHR is held to account by an independent organisation not connect to the EU. When this request is refused we should use it as a reason to leave and set up a UK Human Rights Organisation.

4. Have You Wondered , Thursday, August 10, 2023, 16:09:

.
".......readers might question why the main judging chamber of the ECHR has an enormous EU flag on its floor. "
.
Mmmm.. I stand to be corrected but that carpet does not have 27 stars on it - probably 12 of the Council of Europe?
.

5. There is no 'g' in Brexit , Thursday, August 10, 2023, 17:12:

4. HYW:
The EU flag only has 12 stars.

6. Gazzablack , Thursday, August 10, 2023, 18:23:

4, HYW
.
It is the flag of the council of Europe, and was adopted as such in 1955 as a symbol of the whole of Europe.
The council of Europe consists of 46 countries and principalities (Belarus, Russia and Kosova being notably absent),
.
The EU adopted the COE flag in 1985.
Despite it's prominence and widespread use by the EU, the flag has so far received no status in any of the EU's treaties.
It's adoption as an official symbol was planned as part of the European Constitution.
But in another example of EU efficiancy, it was never ratified.
.

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