1950 (in force 1953) · Charters, declarations and treaties

European Convention on Human Rights

Council of Europe

A treaty protecting civil and political rights, enforced by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Why it matters

It is the most developed system of international human-rights enforcement and is written into the law of many European states.

Built on

1948

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

United Nations

turned the Declaration's rights into binding treaty rules

Went on to shape

1969 (in force 1978)

American Convention on Human Rights

The Americas

followed its model of a commission and a court

1982

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Canada

borrowed the idea of rights limited only for good reasons

1998

Human Rights Act 1998 (United Kingdom)

United Kingdom

incorporates the Convention rights into UK law

2000 (binding 2009)

Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union

European Union

many of its rights follow the Convention's wording

Counting texts that borrowed from the texts that borrowed from this one, 6 later texts on this timeline trace back to it.

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TheLawToKnow Tools’s timeline lists links of influence only where the borrowing is widely documented. Historians sometimes disagree about how much one text shaped another. It is an educational overview, not legal advice.