The European Court of Human Rights Uncovered: What it does, who it protects, why it matters
If you care about spreading accurate information on human rights, then please share the infographic and individual cards as widely as possible.
The current government is considering leaving the European Convention on Human Rights. It is therefore extremely important that people have access to clear, accurate information about what the European Court of Human Rights does, who it protects and why it matters.
We set ourselves the challenge of bringing the work of the European Court of Human Rights to life through fun, sharable infographics . With the help of Information is Beautiful Studio, we think we’ve cracked it. Our detailed research has also brought to light some important facts:
- The UK only loses around 1 out of 100 cases at the court (card 9) The Daily Mail and Sun have reported that the UK loses 3 out of 4 and 3 out of 5 cases at the court respectively.
- Two thirds of the people who have won cases against the UK since 1959 are not terrorists, criminals or prisoners. Again, contrary to what you might have read in the newspapers (Card 10)
- The Court protects over 800 million people and costs 6 pence per European per year to run (card 7)
- The Court is raising standards across Europe, which is good for the UK. In the past two decades, it has been focussing on the post-Communist states, Italy and Turkey, where most of the human rights violations (by far) are happening (cards 3, 4 and 5).
- The countries which are longstanding members of court lose the least cases that go to a full judgment (card 4)
- Over half of the human rights violations the court finds are about the right to a fair trial and property rights – these are key issues particularly in parts of Europe which were formally communist (Card 6)
For more information about the project, or about RightsInfo, please contact me on adam@rightsinfo.org.
All of the statistics we have used for our infographics are available through a Google Sheet – you can find it by clicking “data” at the bottom right of any of the cards. Please let us know if you have any comments or spot any issues.
