European Convention on Human Rights marks 60 years

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on Tuesday to mark the 60^th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights.

He also gave a speech at a plenary session of the European Parliament, which was meeting in the French city.

The Convention came out of the aftermath of World War II, and the Director General of the European Centre for Law and Justice, Gregor Puppinck, says the concept of human rights has changed since the end of the war.

“The population of Europe [in the 1940’s] was mainly culturally Christian,” he told Vatican Radio. “Today we must recognize that Europe is much less Christian.”

He said the human rights which grew out of Christian civilization is in danger of being changed for political purposes.

“Because human rights are at the top of the legal architecture, they are also used, and to some extent hijacked, by purely political or purely ideological agendas and ambitions,” he said.

“The big work, I think, today that the Court at Strasbourg should do is to…keep human rights free from ideology,” he said. “This is very difficult, in fact.” Listen: