In the first half of the twentieth century, the European continent was devastated by two wars and the human rights have been trampled to an unprecedented degree. The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is directly inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). It safeguards a list of rights and freedoms that the Western European governments in the postwar period accepted without hesitation, being fundamental to such an extent that it deserves international recognition. The Convention ensures, among other things, the right to judicial protection, freedom of expression, assembly and association and freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Additional protocols include property rights, the right to education, to free elections and the abolition of the death penalty, and others.