Article 15 allows contracting states to derogate from certain rights guaranteed by the Convention in a time of " war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation " . Permissible derogations under article 15 must meet three substantive conditions : In addition to these substantive requirements , the derogation must be procedurally sound . There must be some formal announcement of the derogation and notice of the derogation , any measures adopted under it , and the ending of the derogation must be communicated to the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe As of 2016 , eight member states had ever invoked derogations . The Court is quite permissive in accepting a state 's derogations from the Convention but applies a higher degree of scrutiny in deciding whether measures taken by states under a derogation are , in the words of Article 15 , " strictly required by the exigencies of the situation " . Thus in '' A v United Kingdom '' , the Court dismissed a claim that a derogation lodged by the British government in response to the September 11 attacks was invalid , but went on to find that measures taken by the United Kingdom under that derogation were disproportionate
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
European Convention on Human Rights