European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is a court set up under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to hear complaints that states who are signatories to the Convention have violated someone's human rights. It sits in Strasbourg, France. All 47 members of the Council of Europe have signed the Convention.

Note: the Court has no connection with the European Court of Justice, which is the highest court of the European Union. However all 27 members of the European Union are members of the Council of Europe.

Decisions of the ECtHR have led to:

• decriminalisation of gay sex in Northern Ireland in 1982
• awards of compensation to ADT and to the Bolton Seven in 2000
• the passing of the Gender Recognition Act 2004.