The areas of protection of human rights at the regional level, especially in the European context are a matter of great concern as the issues are not just limited to incidents of torture or protection of life. Many a time, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) deals with a variety of issues that are linked with religion, morality and privacy, and these are the areas that are prone to various interpretations at different times. This paper is an attempt to lay down the areas where these issues are interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights and the conflicting areas that exist between the ECHR and the EU Directives, especially in the context of right against self-incrimination and protection of asylum seekers. In the course of this paper, European Committee of Social Rights, European Social Charter and Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union have also been referred to in addition to the working mechanism and procedures of the ECHR.

The basic aim of the Council of Europe is to achieve a greater unity between its members for the purpose of safeguarding and realizing the ideals and principles which are their common heritage and facilitating their economic and social progress.1 Generally, when it comes to the protection of human rights it is very difficult to deal with it especially when a religious or moral element is involved as it may differ from societies to societies and different in different nations. For instance, when it comes to the context of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, what necessarily amounts to the same depends upon the moral principles or standards of the particular society. For instance, the punishment procedure based on religious texts in certain countries may be treated as one of the cruel punishments by the other. Basically, in Islamic criminal law, criminal offenses are classified into hudud (strictly defined and punished by Quran that includes amputation of hand, stoning to death, whipping, etc.), jinayat (exact retribution or monetary compensation) and ta’zir (punished by ruler).2 Testing these punishments in the light of Convention becomes difficult as according to the religious belief a religiously sanctioned punishment will absolve the offender from punishment in the next life as God does not punish twice for the same offense and to those believers this system is much more compassionate when they compare it with a situation of the offender not getting punished this way but have to suffer very badly in the next life.

Law Review Journal, European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), Functioning System, Interpretation, Convention, Regional Procedures, Mechanisms, Protection of Human Rights, Detailed Analysis of the European State, Affairs, European Convention, Human Rights.