What happens if someone breaks the ECHR?

The ECHR puts responsibilities on governments to uphold human rights and make sure laws, policies and systems are in place so public bodies (like local authorities, national healthcare workers, teachers and courts) do the same. You can’t bring a case against an individual or a private organisation for breaching the rights in the ECHR. However, if the government or public body breaches your human rights, you can take them to court in the UK, because the Human Rights Act brings these rights into UK law. If this isn’t successful, you might be able to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The Council of Europe explains how to make an application on its website. If the European Court of Human Rights finds the government or public body has breached human rights, it can order them to take certain steps or to pay damages.

The European Court of Human Rights (like all UK courts) can’t change or overrule UK laws. There might be cases where a public body worker has breached someone’s human rights by following another law and there’s no way they could have protected human rights while still following the law. In those situations, the European Court of Human Rights might still order the government to take certain steps or to pay damages. It will also tell the UK that the law in question is incompatible with human rights. It is then up to UK Parliament to change the law. Article 46 of the ECHR puts an obligation on Member States to action judgments from the European Court of Human Rights but it is up to the State to decide how best to do this.

In the UK it is not automatically assumed that our laws will change after a ECtHR judgement because we have the principle of parliamentary sovereignty. This is the idea that Parliament is the ultimate power and can make or get rid of any law it likes. Other countries do things differently. For example, in Azerbaijan, the ECHR takes priority over national laws.