Editing Council of Europe (section)

=== Early years ===

There was huge enthusiasm for the Council of Europe in its early years, as its pioneers set about drafting what was to become the [[European Convention on Human Rights]], a charter of individual rights which – it was hoped – no member government could ever again violate. They drew, in part, on the tenets of the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]], signed only a few months earlier in Paris. But crucially, where the Universal Declaration was essentially aspirational, the European Convention from the beginning featured an enforcement mechanism – an international Court – which was to adjudicate on alleged violations of its articles and to hold governments to account, a dramatic leap forward for international justice. Today, this is the [[European Court of Human Rights]], whose rulings are binding on 46 European nations, the most far-reaching system of international justice anywhere in the world.

One of the council's first acts was to welcome [[West Germany]] into its fold on 2 May 1951,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cvce.eu/en/obj/accession_of_germany_to_the_council_of_europe_strasbourg_2_may_1951-en-24be5b53-aefd-4ac1-a21c-c8e514bd1a9f.html |title=Accession of Germany to the Council of Europe (Strasbourg, 2 May 1951) – CVCE Website |publisher=Cvce.eu |date=2 May 1951 |access-date=24 September 2020}}</ref> setting a pattern of post-war reconciliation that was to become a hallmark of the council, and beginning a long process of "enlargement" which was to see the organisation grow from its original ten founding member states to the 46 nations that make up the Council of Europe today.<ref>{{cite web|author=The Council of Europe in brief |url=https://www.coe.int/en/web/about-us/our-member-states |title=Our member States |publisher=Coe.int |date=5 May 1949 |access-date=24 September 2020}}</ref> Iceland had already joined in 1950, followed in 1956 by Austria, Cyprus in 1961, Switzerland in 1963 and Malta in 1965.