Conference on Revisiting the ECHR

On the 22nd of May 2026, the Human Rights Research Group of the Leuven University’s Centre for Public Law is organizing a conference entitled ‘Revisiting the ECHR: A Closer Look at Calls for Change‘. The impetus for the conference was the by now (in)famous letter May last year by nine governments calling for changing the ECHR. As the governments phrased it in that letter: “We want to use our democratic mandate to launch a new and open-minded conversation about the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights. We have to restore the right balance.”

The conference is taking place exactly one year after the publication of the letter, on the 22nd of May 2026. Professor Başak Çalı (Oxford University) will be the keynote speaker.

Here is the description of the conference, together with the program:

‘What started as an open letter in May 2025 has culminated in an increasingly articulate call by a large group of European leaders to revisit and reform the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). These leaders have pointed to the interpretation of the Convention as an impediment to policymaking and states’ interests, particularly in (but not limited to) migration matters. But what does it mean to point at Strasbourg and its judges as a roadblock to democratic governance? And how can and may governments address this issue? While the political plans are still taking shape, the changing playing field calls for in-depth academic engagement. With this conference, the Human Rights Research Group at KU Leuven will create a space for open and balanced debate on the possibilities for reform and their implications.

PROGRAM

9:00 | Registration and coffee

9:30 | Intro and keynote

• Prof. Paul Lemmens – Introduction
• Keynote Başak Çalı Evaluating 75 years of reform of the ECHR system

10:30- 12:15 | Panel I
Political Dialogue at the ECtHR

1. Roland Pierik, Should the ECtHR change its course? A legal-philosophical perspective
2. Alice Donald and Andrew Forde, The Chișinău Process – How Political Declarations Shape the European Convention on Human Rights
3. Dana Burchardt, Change as product of negotiated authority at the ECtHR
4. Alain Zysset, ‘Political Process Theory’ in Strasbourg? Assessing the Merits and Limits of the ECtHR’s ‘Democratic Society’
5. Sarah Lambrecht, Undue Political Pressure is Not Dialogue

12:15 – 13:15 | Lunch

13:15-15:00 | Panel II
ECtHR and pluralism / national perspectives

1. Casper Vanspauwen, Strasbourg’s Pluralist Turn: The European Court of Human Rights’ Attempt at Reconciling Constitutional and Conventional Supremacy
2. Lize Glas and Jasper Krommendijk, The EC(t)HR in the Dutch Political Landscape: Foe, Friend or Frenemy?
3. Lewis Graham, The necessity of reforming Articles 3 and 8 ECHR: evidence from UK courts
4. Eva Sevrin, Migrant Non-deportability as a Threat to the ECtHR or Vice Versa: Belgium as a Case Study
5. Sophie Treacy, Strasbourg as an enhancer of Democratic Legitimacy: The Irish Experience

15:15-17:00 | Panel III
The ECtHR’s approach in Migration Cases

Moderator: Thomas Spijkerboer; introduction on ECHR and migration

1. Lorenzo Acconciamessa, International (Substantive) Legal Constraints on States’ Power to Reform the ECHR (and its Interpretation) in Migration Issues
2. Jonathan Kiessling, All’s well that ends well? – Why “proceduralisation” rings hollow for migrants’ rights at European borders
3. Anne Heinisch, Responding Without Reforming? Evidentiary Reasoning as a Tool of Institutional Restraint at the ECtHR
4. Vladislava Stoyanova, Positive Obligations Migration Cases

Concluding remarks by prof. Koen Lemmens

You can register here.