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• Tue Nov 4 2025

We are ready to discuss human rights law changes, top ECHR boss tells BBC

20 hours ago Share Save Dominic Casciani Home and Legal Correspondent Share Save

BBC Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the political guardian of the ECHR

The political head of the body that oversees the European Convention on Human Rights has told the BBC that it is "absolutely ready" to discuss reforms amid pressure from the UK and other countries over migration. Speaking exclusively to the BBC, Alain Berset, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, predicted that quitting international human rights law would leave the UK "isolated" on the world stage. He acknowledged human rights laws may need to "change or adapt" and the institutions, whose creation was largely led by the British after World War Two, remained crucial to peace, security and justice. Berset's words - ahead of the Convention's 75th anniversary - are the most public confirmation that the body could evolve amid mounting debate over its future across the continent. It is also public recognition that it has to talk to the UK about its future - and about potential change.

The council, which is unrelated to the European Union, is the international political body in Strasbourg that oversees and enforces the work of the European Court of Human Rights. The court rules on how to interpret human rights law in its 46 member states. In the UK, the government and judges must take these rulings into account, but are not bound by judgments that do not closely relate to our circumstances. Sir Keir Starmer's government has committed to changing how the government interprets the right to privacy and family life so that it can't be used by illegal immigrants to frustrate their removal from the country. In a speech earlier this year in Strasbourg, Shabana Mahmood, then justice secretary and now home secretary, said the convention itself must evolve to maintain public confidence. The Conservatives and Reform are calling for the UK to walk away from the treaty, claiming Strasbourg's human rights law is a block on managing borders. Nine EU nations, led by Denmark and Italy, have also called for major changes - which would need the agreement of all member states.

Inside the courtroom at the ECHR

In a rare interview about the ECHR's relationship with the UK at the council's headquarters in France, Berset told the BBC: "I am ready, absolutely ready, and really open to engage in all political discussions, to see what we need to discuss, maybe to change or to adapt. "Let us engage on migration issues and to see what we need to address and maybe to change. "The most important point is to be ready to speak on all issues without taboo... and to see then what could be the possible consensus between member states." Critics of the ECHR say that the advantage of leaving for the UK would be to take back control over human rights law. But Berset said: "The opposite is true. What I see is more the risk to be a bit isolated. It would mean to be not participating to all the discussion on migration, to take an influence." While he said he would not comment on internal politics in the UK, Berset appealed for the debate over the ECHR had to return to "facts".

The original ECHR declaration, agreed by the UK Government and others in 1950