EU bid to join human rights convention poses tricky questions

The European Union has taken the first step on the path to signing up to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), a move that supporters say will mark the completion of human rights protection in the EU.

All member states have signed up to the ECHR, a 1950 international treaty guaranteeing a series of rights, including freedom of thought, speech, assembly and religion and governed by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

But the EU itself was only able to sign u...