– in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 15 June 1964.
Mr Niall MacDermot
, Derby North
12:00,
15 June 1964
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government will now accept the right of individual application to, and the compulsory jurisdiction of, the European Court of Human Rights.
Mr Peter Thomas
, Conway
No, Sir. I should add that the right of individual petition, for which the European Human Rights Convention makes optional provision, is to the European Commission on Human Rights, not to the Court.
Mr Niall MacDermot
, Derby North
First, as regards the compulsory jurisdiction point, will the right hon. Gentleman confirm that there is no objection in principle to our agreeing to submit ourselves to the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court, as, indeed, we do in part to the Court at The Hague? Further, is it not correct that what has been holding back Her Majesty's Government until now on this matter has been the fact that we have extended the Convention to about 42 overseas territories with a population of over 97 million, but is it not right that by next October there will be left fewer than 3½ million people in those territories, the rest having attained independence? In view of this, cannot Her Majesty's Government reconsider this question, as our acceptance of compulsory jurisdiction would greatly enhance the authority of the Court?
Mr Peter Thomas
, Conway
I agree with the hon and learned Gentleman that there is no objection in principle to our accepting the jurisdiction of the Court. While we do not accept the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court, we could accept the jurisdiction of the Court in certain ad hoc cases, should we consider them to be suitable. Most of the cases which have come before the Court are, we think, cases which can be dealt with by a body such as is provided for in the Convention, that is, the Committee of Ministers. As to individual petitions to the Commission, we do not accept this, because we feel that it is open to abuse for political purposes.
Sir Knox Cunningham
, South Antrim
Will my right hon. Friend take extreme care about any step which might undermine the authority of the Supreme Court in the United Kingdom, which is the envy of many countries of the world?
Mr Peter Thomas
, Conway
Yes. That is a matter for consideration also.
Also referred to as the ECHR, the European Court of Human Rights was instituted as a place to hear Human Rights complaints from Council of Europe Member States; it consists of a number of judges equal to the number of Council of Europe seats (which currently stands at 45 at the time of writing), divided into four geographic- and gender-balanced "Sections" eac of which selects a Chamber (consisting of a President and six rotating justices), and a 17-member Grand Chamber consisting of a President, Vice-Presidents, and all Section Presidents, as well as a rotating selection of other justices from one of two balanced groups.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The European Commission is the politically independent institution that represents and upholds the interests of the EU as a whole. It is the driving force within the EU’s institutional system: it proposes legislation, policies and programmes of action and it is responsible for implementing the decisions of Parliament and the Council.
Like the Parliament and Council, the European Commission was set up in the 1950s under the EU’s founding treaties.
