The original philosophy behind the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention) was accurately summarized by Lord Layton when, in opening the first debates of the Parliamentary Assembly in 1949, he underlined “the great importance” of the guarantee of human rights:
first for the sake of the individual European citizens who may benefit from it; secondly, as a means of strengthening the resistance in all our countries against insidious attempts to undermine our democratic way of life from within or without, and thus to give to western Europe as a whole greater political stability; and thirdly, as the acid test of whether countries should be admitted to this Council of Europe.
