Prof. Irena Ilieva: The European Convention on Human Rights is a shield for preventing harm from the past and from new threats

The European Convention on Human Rights is an expression of legal humanism, but also a barrier against totalitarianism, a shield to prevent the harm of the past and of new threats. This was stated by the Director of the Institute for the State and the Law, Prof. Irena Ilieva, PhD, at the opening of an international conference dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Convention. The forum was attended by scholars, lawyers, public figures and representatives of state institutions from Bulgaria, the United Kingdom and Spain.

"We live in a time in which there is a retreat from the principles of democracy. Only 28% of people in the world live in democratic states. In Europe, populist, anti-migration and extremist ideas are gaining momentum, and these are also represented in the governance of some states," Prof. Ilieva pointed out. She specified that the task of the forum was to discuss the achievements and challenges facing the application of the European Convention on Human Rights in a world in which there are retreats from the principles of democracy and the protection of human rights.

A message of greeting was also read out on behalf of the country's Ombudsman, Velislava Delcheva. In it, she noted that the Convention is not merely an international treaty, but a promise to the future that, after the horrors of war, Europe is being built upon the values of humanism, freedom and justice.

The Ambassador at the Permanent Representation of Bulgaria to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, Maria Spasova, welcomed the participants in the conference. She underlined the significance of the Convention for European unity. "The European Convention is a living instrument that creates real obligations to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms. It lies at the foundation of European unification and of the building of trust between states," she said.

In the post-war period, Europe took a solemn oath to itself that dignity, freedom and justice would never again be subject to negotiation, said, for her part, the judge at the European Court of Human Rights, Prof. Diana Kovacheva, PhD, who joined the forum online. "Our predecessors drew up a treaty that changed the relationship between the individual and the state, not only as a legal instrument but also as a collective declaration that human dignity, freedom and the rule of law must forever remain at the foundation of peace in Europe," Prof. Kovacheva declared. According to her, the European Court of Human Rights is a unique judicial body in international law, in which everyone can seek justice and defend the vision of a Europe united through knowledge and shared values, which became a fact on 4 November 1950 in Rome with the signing of the ECHR.

The conference was held in five thematic panels, in which more than 30 scientific papers were presented, devoted to case law, personal freedoms, technologies and human rights, as well as to the future challenges facing the system for the protection of human rights in Europe.

In his paper, Michael Whine, a member of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance of the Council of Europe, presented the approach of the European Court of Human Rights to combating antisemitism in selected case law and focused on Holocaust denial and antisemitic hate speech online.

"The decisions of the European Court of Human Rights under Art. 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights are a striking example of the mission that it and its jurisdiction are called upon to fulfil," Chief Assist. Prof. Ognyan Velev, PhD, noted in his paper. According to Assoc. Prof. Toni Dimov, PhD, in the Bulgarian rule-making process the "human rights" dimension is positively regulated in law in the Normative Acts Act, through the institution of prior review of the conformity of draft laws with the ECHRFF and the case law of the ECtHR. "Unfortunately, its scope is far too limited and truncated, and it relates solely to draft laws of the Council of Ministers. The current ratio of draft laws submitted to the National Assembly, according to the latest study for the period 11.11.2024 – 11.08.2025 by the Library, Information and Parliamentary Research Centre of the National Assembly, is 75.7% from members of parliament and 24.3% from the Council of Ministers. The conclusion is that, with regard to three quarters of the submitted draft proposals, there is a genuinely existing risk of non-conformity with the ECHRFF and the case law of the Strasbourg Court," Assoc. Prof. Dimov commented.

The topic of technologies and human rights was examined by Chief Assist. Prof. Georgi Bakyov, PhD. "HUDERIA is a new methodological instrument of the Council of Europe for assessing the impact of artificial intelligence on human rights, which aims at identifying risks and measures for their mitigation in all phases of the life cycle of algorithmic systems. Although it is already being applied on a pilot basis in the EU and in several developed European states, in Bulgaria, where the government doctrine on technological development treats human rights as a peripheral topic, the methodology will probably encounter very limited continuity," noted the scholar from the ISL.

At the forum, Assoc. Prof. Atanas Vladikov of Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv presented the participants with an international survey in which 10,000 business leaders in various sectors across 93 economies were questioned about trends concerning human capital. "61% of managers and 72 per cent of workers cannot say that they have trust in the management system of the company in which they work, which points to an alarming trend in countries around the world and to the fact that trust, truth and justice have been replaced by other values in the functioning of economic and social systems," Assoc. Prof. Vladikov noted. In his view, the legal and economic models currently in place are inadequate and a new approach is needed, which would reconcile the specific demand for human capital with the principles and agreements for the protection of the rights and freedoms of the individual.

At the conference, representatives of the academic community and of Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", South-West University "Neofit Rilski", the Institute for the State and the Law at the BAS, the judiciary, institutions and diplomats presented their views on the significance of the European Convention, signed 75 years ago. The forum underlined its topicality in the era of artificial intelligence, migration crises and growing social inequalities, as well as the enduring nature of the values enshrined in it, which continue to be the foundation of European democracy.