The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) Act 2003 has had little success in protecting human rights due mainly to the Irish Government’s failure to act on court declarations of incompatibility with the Human Rights Convention. But the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights may provide another avenue for vindicating ECHR rights. This was demonstrated very clearly on 8 April in the case of Digital Rights Ireland Ltd v Minister for Communications & Others, when the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) struck down an EU Directive on the retention of communications data because it was in breach of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
FLAC Senior Solicitor Michael Farrell has written an article about how the EU Charter can be used to make rights protected by the ECHR more effective. Following a general overview of the role of the ECHR and the EU Charter, he looks at the Digital Rights case and some other Irish cases where the Charter of Fundamental Rights has played an important role.
Click here to read Michael Farrell’s article.