The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, Court) was established in 1959 in accordance with Art. 19 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in order to ensure that the Contracting Parties comply with their obligations under the Convention and its Protocols.

In its current form, the Court has been in operation since 1998, when Protocol No. 11 to the Convention entered into force.

The ECtHR operates on a permanent basis.

The Court is composed of 47 judges, elected by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from each member state and participating in the work of the ECtHR in their individual capacity.

The President of the ECtHR since May 2020 is Robert Spano (Iceland), the Registrar of the Court since December 2015 is Roderick Liddell (UK).

The Court's budget for 2020 is € 74 million. It is funded by all member states of the Council of Europe in proportion to population and GDP.

According to official statistics, as of the end of 2019, the total number of applications pending before the Court was 59,800, of which 15,050 (25.2%) - against Russia, 9,250 (15.5%) - Turkey, 8,850 (14.8%) - Ukraine, 7900 (13.2%) - Romania.