Interview: Sir Nicolas Bratza, former President, European Court of Human Rights - film

As President of the European Court of Human Rights - which oversees justice for more than 800 million people - Sir Nicolas Bratza grappled with a backlog of 138,000 cases, growing anti-ECHR sentiment in the UK and elsewhere, and stagnating funding streams. What hopes for the future?

Topics and timings can be found beneath the film.

 Pic: Diocese of Westminster

Topics and timings

00:26 How do you define human rights?
01:41 What should be added to, or removed from, the Constitution?
02:44 Socioeconomic and environmental rights
04:42 Sovereignty, authority and credibility of the ECHR
06:15 Perception of ECHR's intereference in State affairs
07:48 Abu Qatada case; criticism of the ECHR and hostility towards it
11:18 Rights for alleged terrorists?
13:23 'Margin of Appreciation' and the interpretation of laws between States; sovereignty
16:08 Is criticism of the Convention damaging the ECHR?
18:36 Possibility of a human rights world court
19.52 Is new media challenging the right to privacy? Privacy v freedom of information
20:57 Does the media undermine respect for the judiciary?
22:03 What can be done to secure greater confidence in human rights?
23:17 How can senior UK judges be encouraged to sit on ECHR?
25:00 What steps can allies of the ECHR take to help it?
26:23 With such a backlog of cases, shouldn't the Court concentrate on the big issues rather than social or political issues?
29:00 How could the Court improve
30:55 Reducing the number of cases
31:08 On the criticism of the selection process and standard of judges
35:48 Relationship with national judges
37:31 Confusion between the EU and the ECHR - what can be done to combat it?
38:20 What can be done to encourage Member States to comply with Court rulings?
39:40 Problematic countries
40:44 Improving democratic accountability?
41:45 The mechanics of the ECHR - how does it work?
43:35 Surveillance - would there be an ECHR case for invasion of privacy? How can governments balance rights to privacy and counterterrorism measures?
45:53 Evolution of human rights law
47:25 Perception of human rights as a Western concept
49:30 Challenges for the ECHR