Brexit will have no automatic impact on the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998), or the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) provided for by the HRA 1998. Nor will it automatically lead to the UK withdrawing its membership from the Council of Europe, which is an entirely separate body from the European Union.
The Council of Europe was created at the end of the Second World War. It has 47 members and its membership includes but is not limited to the 28 (current) members of the European Union. The headquarters of the Council is in Strasbourg. It is comprised of a Committee of Ministers and a Parliamentary Assembly and its most senior official is the Secretary General. The Parliamentary Assembly is not an elected parliament; its members are elected by the parliaments of the individual Member States.
The Council of Europe drafted the European Convention for the Protection of Human