In the framework of the debate concerning the reform process of the European Convention on Human Rights and its subsidiary nature, the need to ensure that public policies be adequately ECHR-oriented, so as to guarantee effective protection to the ECHR and prevent violations, has become central.

Against this backdrop, the thesis argues that it is possible to identify a discernible trend, within the Council of Europe framework, towards the emergence of a policy strategy aimed at strengthening the implementation of the ECHR through the integration of the latter in national policy-making with a view to facilitating the adoption of ECHR-oriented public policies.

It is also argued that such a strategy resembles the policy tool that, in political sciences, goes under the name of ‘mainstreaming’. Following a comparison of the strategy emerging from the CoE framework against the latter, it is argued that this emerging strategy can be labelled ‘ECHR-mainstreaming’.