Human rights and international law have come far in the past 100 years, but the European Court of Human Rights still faces difficulties today, said Judge Luzius Wildhaber, president of the Court, at the Washington College of Law Friday.
Approximately 100 WCL and AU students, professors and community members came to hear Wildhaber, who was introduced by Stephen Breyer. Breyer is an associate justice of the Supreme Court who has known Wildhaber for years. He described Wildhaber as an honest and effective judge and compared him to the famous American Chief Justice John Marshall, who is credited for creating the modern Supreme Court.
Wildhaber spoke of the difficult decisions nations and judges face in attempting to prevent and prosecute terrorism while respecting human rights.
"Democratic society is not defenseless in the face of terrorism," he said, but we must "never forget the insinuous undermining of human rights."
Still, he said, countries can't do whatever they like under the guise of national security. Using confidential information and impinging on human rights must balance the need for information and the methods used to obtain it.
However, he said some rights are absolute, such as the right to not be tortured.
"Human rights are not undemocratic," Wildhaber said. "Terrorism is anti-democratic."
The European Court of Human Rights is the largest international court ever created, said Wildhaber, calling the court a "living instrument. With jurisdiction over 45 nations, Wildhaber spoke of the difficulties of applying and enforcing the same standards to all member states, many of which have had a heavily tainted history of human rights.
The Court receives an average of 900 letters per day and the number of applications for cases has increased about 15 percent each year. There are currently 82,000 pending applications. Russia, Turkey, Poland and Romania submit the most applications to the Court of Human Rights, according to Wildhaber.
The speech was a part of WCL's Founder Celebration Week.