The European Convention on Human Rights is nowadays one of the most prominent human rights treaties. In particular in the Netherlands, it has become the main legal tool for fundamental rights protection. As such, it has also found itself in the spotlight: pushback has developed against its perceived excessive constraining of political options and the European Court is being criticized for interference with domestic sensitivities. This roundtable, based on a new book by Wiebe Hommes (professor of EU law and legal history, UvA), discusses these developments and highlights the usages of history in the current pushback against European human rights.

That the Convention today looks very different from what its drafters intended in 1950 is self-evident. To most, whether they defend or critique the European human rights system, this is the result of historical actions of the European Court itself. Wiebe Hommes’ book, The Convention and the Kingdom, tells a different story. Focusing on the Kingdom of the Netherlands, it highlights a range of new actors and showcases how the domestic context actively participated in the creation of European human rights.  

In retelling the history of the Convention, it sheds light on forgotten paths, changes in meaning and key moments in which the future of European human rights was determined. Crucial therein is the fact that human rights were (and are) a matter which affected the entire Kingdom, harboring a colonial legacy which still shapes its present day meaning.