Russia urged the European Union on Monday to accede to the European Convention on Human Rights.
“We are concerned that the European Union has not as yet joined the main legal instrument of the Council of Europe - the European Convention on Human Rights,” Russia’s EU envoy Vladimir Chizhov told a parliamentary hearing entitled Human Rights Issue in the EU States.
“We would like that to happen as soon as possible,” he said.
All the EU member states are party to the Convention but the EU as such is not a signatory.
The 1950 Convention lays down human rights and fundamental freedoms and obligates all states to guarantee these rights to every person.
Russia ratified the Convention in March 1998.
