The Age of Backlash: The European Convention on Human Rights and the new Political Reality
On Thursday, 30 October 2025, the Dublin European Law Institute (DELI) at Dublin City University (DCU) hosted an online event titled “The Age of Backlash – The European Convention on Human Rights and the New Political Reality.”
Watch the full event on our YouTube, or read the event report.
Despite the unity around values expressed by Council of Europe member states at the 2023 Reykjavík Summit - following Russia’s expulsion from the Council of Europe a year earlier for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine - the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has come under sustained political pressure. It has been accused of judicial overreach, normative arrogance, and even blamed for domestic policy failings.
Backlash against the Convention system is not new, but recent developments appear to be qualitatively different. A group of nine states recently issued a wide-ranging open letter calling for the Court to afford greater latitude to national authorities in the field of migration, particularly in cases concerning the expulsion of “criminal foreign nationals.” Concrete proposals to reform the ECHR are now in motion. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, leaving the ECHR has become a mainstream policy position of two major parties—with apparently little concern for its implications, especially in Northern Ireland, where the Good Friday Agreement hinges on the Convention.
This event also marked the official launch of the AGORA Group, an independent, pan-European platform committed to open dialogue and balanced, evidence-based debate on key issues concerning the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which now brings together more than 700 members.
Programme
12.00 - Opening Remarks:
Prof Derek Hand, Executive Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dublin City University
12.05 - Special Guest Address:
Senator Adam Bodnar, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Republic of Poland
12.20 - Panel Discussion: The Age of Backlash – The European Convention on Human Rights and the New Political Reality
Chair: Dr Andrew Forde, Dublin City University
Panellists:
- Prof Mikael Madsen, University of Copenhagen
- Prof Alice Donald, Middlesex University
- Prof Colin Harvey, Queen’s University Belfast
- Prof Veronika Fikfak, University College London / University of Copenhagen