What is the ECHR and how did it intervene in UK’s Rwanda flight plans?

Judgments by the European court of human rights in Strasbourg, France, are binding on the 46 states that have ratified the European convention. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

After the first deportation flight of asylum seekers to Rwanda was abandoned after a dramatic 11th-hour intervention from the European court of human rights, the government insisted it was only a “temporary setback”. As some Conservative MPs are expected to renew calls for the UK to withdraw from the ECHR, here are some key questions surrounding its role in this case.

What is the ECHR?