"(A) Convention on Human rights, which did not grant any right of redress to individuals, was not worth the paper it was written on." Seán MacBride, Minister for External Affairs, Fifth Session of the Committee of Ministers (August 1950)

Drafting of the European Convention on Human Rights (1949-1950)

Under the Statute of the Council of Europe, signed in May 1949, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Ireland founded an organisation for European political, economic and cultural co-operation, inaugurated as the Council of Europe, with two institutional bodies called the Consultative Assembly, composed of national parliamentarians, and the Committee of Ministers, composed of Foreign Ministers of the Council of Europe’s Member States. 

Ireland’s involvement in the early period of the Council of Europe proved significant both from a foreign policy and a human rights perspective.  Until 1955 and its membership of the United Nations, Ireland was a member of a limited number of international organisations; the International Labour Organisation, the World Health Organisation and the Organisation of European Economic Co-operation.  The Council of Europe offered Ireland one of the few international forums in which it could attempt to influence regional policy on a range of political, economic and social debates. Most importantly for this project, membership of the Council of Europe provided Ireland with the capacity to impact on one of the greatest achievements in the organisation’s history; the negotiation and conclusion of the European Convention of Human Rights (1950).  

With Irish ratification on the 26 ^th February 1953, the European Convention of Human Rights proved progressively to have an immensely prominent influence on Ireland’s human rights development, consequent to numerous crucial applications against Ireland before the European Commission of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights.

’…a real instrument of co-operation and not merely a façade’ is being created.

Sean MacBride (Minister for External Affairs) addressing the Washington Writers Club quoted in Irish Times, 13th April 1949

In the National Archives, the Researcher, Aisling O’Sullivan, collected material from 40 files on the drafting of the European Convention of Human Rights and part of this work provided the basis for a paper by the Project Director, Professor William Schabas, entitled ’ Ireland, the European Convention of Human Rights and the personal contribution of Sean MacBride’ in John Morison, Kieran McEvoy and Gordon Anthony (ed.), Judges, Transition and Human Rights (Oxford, Oxford University Press 2007).

For relevant general bibliographies:

• Irish History Online
• British History Online
• CAIN

Further information:

• More info on Ireland’s involvement
• Bibliography

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