Chapter 3 • The Major Regional Human Rights Instruments and the Mechanisms for Their Implementation 4. European Human Rights Treaties and their Implementation 4.1 The European Convention on Human Rights, 1950, and its Protocols Nos. 1, 4, 6 and 7 The European Convention on Human Rights was adopted by the Council of Europe in 1950, and entered into force on 3 September 1953.35 As of 29 April 2002 it had 43 States parties.36 The Convention originally created both a European Commission and a European Court of Human Rights entrusted with the observance of the engagements undertaken by the High Contracting Parties to the Convention, but with the entry into force of Protocol No. 1137 to the Convention on 1 November 1998, the control machinery was restructured so that all allegations are now directly referred to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. This Court is the first, and so far only, permanent human rights court sitting on a full-time basis. The rights protected by the Convention have been extended by Additional Protocols Nos. 1, 4, 6 and 7, all of which will be dealt with below. Protocol No. 12 concerning the prohibition of discrimination was opened for signature on 4 November 2000 in Rome, in the context of the fiftieth anniversary celebrations of the Convention itself, which was signed in the Italian capital on 4 November 1950. Finally, Protocol No. 13 was opened for signature in Vilnius on 3 May 2002. This protocol concerns the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances. 4.1.1 The undertakings of the States parties The High Contracting Parties “shall secure to everyone within their jurisdiction the rights and freedoms defined in Section I of [the] Convention” (art. 1). This means, inter alia, that they also have to provide everyone whose rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Convention have been violated with “an effective remedy before a national authority notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity” (art. 13). 4.1.2 The rights guaranteed The European Convention guarantees the following civil and political rights: v v v v the right to life – art. 2; the prohibition of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment – art. 3; the prohibition of slavery, servitude, and forced or compulsory labour – art. 4; the right to liberty and security – art. 5; 35 The official name of this treaty is: Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, see European Treaty Series (ETS), no.: 005. 36 For the ratifications of the European Convention on Human Rights and its various Protocols, see http://conventions.coe.int/. 37 ETS no.: 155. Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers 95