Europäischer Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte, EGMR

European Court of Human Rights, ECHR, organ of the Council of Europe established in 1959, headquarters in Strasbourg, to which each of the member states delegates one judge; the Austrian judge has been W. Fuhrmann since 1998. The European Court of Human Rights was the international court of second instance for complaints under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms until 1998; the European Commission on Human Rights used to hear such complaints as the court of first instance. Since 1998 the ECHR has also functioned as the court of first instance. Since Austria is the only country to have incorporated the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms as an integral and immediately applicable part of its constitutional law, the number of cases from Austria appearing before the ECHR is higher than the average (1995-1998: 26 cases).