ABSTRACT
The impetus for development of intergovernmental organisations and development of international human rights law after World War II came from the manner in which Nazi Germany had treated its own citizens, in particular Jews via the Holocaust. No international human rights mechanisms had existed prior to and during the war that could have allowed interference between a state and its citizens in relation to even extreme human rights’ abuses. The result was the setting up of the UN which introduced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The same impetus lay behind the establishment of the Council of Europe, which was founded by the Statute of the Council of Europe in 1949. The UDHR was specifically concerned with the relations between governments and their own subjects. The European Convention on Human Rights was based on the UDHR and was intended to prevent the kind of extreme violation of human rights seen in Germany during and before the war, by providing an early warning system that such violations were beginning to occur. It came into force in 1953.2 The Council of Europe – which now has 47 member states – was set up in the course of the post-war attempt to unify Europe in order to safeguard common ideals, which included creating greater recognition of the importance of human rights.
