In today's democratically organized societies human rights and freedoms are a central element around which grounds for functioning of the authority are set. The system based on the European convention for the protection of human rights and basic freedoms has set some norms among which the right to freedom and security has got one of the most significant roles. The right to freedom and security should be placed on a value scale right next to the right to life and dignity. That is why caution, especially of legislative authorities, which according to legislative norms, which have been brought and adjusted to the norms contained in the European convention for the human rights, form patterns and the way in which legislative authorities (including courts and prison institutions) interpret them. Thus, the question of the compliance of the treatment of all the factors leads us to the basics prescribed in the article 5 of the European convention for the protection of human rights and freedoms. As I am personally and business related to it and as I represent one aspect of society which has a significant part in respect of human rights and especially the right to freedom and with that the right to security of the society itself, I have decided to explore and try to make a connection between the European convention for the protection of human rights and basic freedoms and its article 5 with the prison system of the Republic of Croatia. I am an employee in a judicial institution where I am daily in touch with people who claim and convince that their rights to freedom and security have been violated and are trying to find a way to exercise these rights. The first part introduces and explains the term of human rights, their historical development until recent times, historical documents which have shown the development of human rights and people who have contibuted to protection of human rights the most. The second part deals with human rights in the international documents of recent times and the most important European convention for the protection of human rights and basic freedom, its birth, content and monitoring system. The middle part is the article 5 of the European convention – the right to freedom and security, its implementation in the legislation of the Republic of Croatia, prescribed limitations of human rights, terminology and the meanings of the term for freedom deprivation and statistic data concerning the prison system of the Republic of Croatia and in continuation the article 5 of the Convention, its content and the terms which describe the article. The last chapter cites four verdicts of te European court for human rights which refer to the article 5 of the Convention which present the method of working and the attitude of the Court itself toward human rights.