ELI established an Expert Committee to reflect, at a high level, on the capacity of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Convention system to respond to a rapidly evolving global environment. Recent developments have raised a number of questions regarding resilience and the ability of the Convention to continue fulfilling its stabilising role within the European human rights architecture.

The work of the Expert Committee is organised around five complementary strands. The first two strands bring together former Presidents of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and specialists in constitutional and institutional governance to reflect on the systemic and institutional dimensions of the Convention framework. The remaining strands focus on emerging areas of global change that are likely to raise new questions for the Convention system, namely disruptive technologies, environment and climate justice, and migration and international protection.

The discussion centered on the growing pressures on the European Convention on Human Rights system, including political challenges, uneven implementation of Court judgements, and international institutional constraints. They highlighted how rapid technological change, especially AI and digital platforms, is reshaping human rights issues across areas such as privacy, fair trial, freedom of expression, and non-discrimination, while also complicating responsibility and enforcement. Environmental and climate litigation, as well as migration and asylum cases, further test the limits of existing legal doctrines and the Court’s interpretative approach.

The Expert Committee does not suggest one structural overhaul, but rather incremental reforms – better cooperation, stronger enforcement, institutional modernization, and more adaptive interpretation to keep the Convention system effective under new political, technological, and social pressures.