Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: Prohibition of Inhuman Treatment

  • Yaiza Janssens

I.P. v. the Republic of Moldova: missed opportunity to tackle rape myths

May 20, 2015

By Yaiza Janssens In the recent case of I.P. v. the Republic of Moldova, the European Court of Human Rights examined state responsibility to establish an effective legal and judicial framework with regard to rape under Articles 3 and 8 of the Convention. In this post, I show that the Court failed to acknowledge that […]

  • Eva Brems

Moving away from N v UK – Interesting tracks in a dissenting opinion (Tatar v Switzerland)

May 04, 2015

By Eva Brems The Court’s case law on the expulsion of very ill persons to their country of origin bothers many. The standard  of ‘very exceptional circumstances’ set in N v United Kingdom (2008) is so high that no applicant to date has passed it. The only individual who has won a case of this […]

  • Guest Blogger

S.J. v. Belgium: missed opportunity to fairly protect seriously ill migrants facing expulsion

April 30, 2015

This guest post was written by Sarah Ganty, Ph.D. student at the Institute for European Studies and at the Faculty of Law (Perelman Centre for Legal Philosophy) of the ULB within the Research project ARC “Sous le signe du mérite et de la conformité culturelle, les nouvelles politiques d’intégration des immigrés en Europe”. See also […]

  • Guest Blogger

The Cestaro v. Italy Case and the “Prohibited Purpose” Requirement of Torture

April 20, 2015

This guest post was written by Christina Kosin, LL.M. (Edinburgh) and Ph.D. student and academic assistant within the Network of Excellence for the Law of Civil Security in Europe at the German Police University in Münster, Germany. See also the post she wrote for EU Law Analysis. The main argument of this comment is that […]

  • Guest Blogger

Another episode in the Strasbourg saga on the Dublin System to determine the State Responsible for Asylum Applications

February 20, 2015

This guest post was written by Salvo Nicolosi, Postdoctoral Researcher at Ghent University’s Human Rights Centre. The recent decision in A.M.E. v. The Netherlands, issued by the European Court of Human Rights last 13 January 2015 and notified in writing on 5 February 2015, offers another occasion to assess through a human rights perspective the […]

  • Guest Blogger

Vasilescu v. Belgium: The Same Old Belgian Song of Structural Deplorable Prison Conditions

December 10, 2014

This guest post was written by Rebecca Deruiter. PhD Researcher at the Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy (IRCP), Ghent University [1] In its recent ruling in Vasilescu v. Belgium, the European Court of Human Rights convicted the Belgian state of inhuman and degrading treatment violating Article 3, for the deplorable detention conditions during […]

  • Guest Blogger

Tarakhel v. Switzerland: Another Step in a Quiet (R)evolution?

December 01, 2014

This guest post was written by Nesa Zimmermann, Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant at the University of Geneva, Switzerland (*) The Court’s recent ruling in Tarakhel v. Switzerland became famous almost before it was delivered. The case has received strong media attention, and some claimed the judgment signified “the end of the Dublin system”. However, […]

  • Laurens Lavrysen

Belgium violated the ECHR by extraditing a terrorist to the USA despite an interim measure by the Strasbourg Court: Trabelsi v. Belgium

September 12, 2014

The Trabelsi case is noteworthy for two reasons. Firstly, because of the blatant disregard by Belgium of the interim measure issued by the European Court of Human Rights. Secondly, because of the application of the reasoning from Vinter v. UK – in which the Court found that life without parole is incompatible with Article 3 […]

  • Guest Blogger

The multifaceted and crucial role played by NGOs at the European Court of Human Rights

August 04, 2014

This guest post was written by Laura Van den Eynde, Doctoral Researcher at Université libre de Bruxelles. (*) On 17 and 24 July 2014, the European Court of Human Rights decided three cases, one against Romania concerning the death of a mentally disabled and HIV-positive young Roma and two other cases against Poland concerning the […]

  • Guest Blogger

The European Court of Human Rights has spoken … again. Does Turkey listen?

July 07, 2014

This guest post was written by Dr Elena Katselli, Senior Lecturer in Law at Newcastle Law School Thirteen years have elapsed since the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) judgment in Cyprus v Turkey in which the Court found Turkey responsible for 14 violations of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its Protocols. […]

  • Guest Blogger

Abdu v. Bulgaria – Yet another case of racist violence before the Court!

March 20, 2014

This guest post was written by Mathias Möschel, post-doctoral researcher at Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense. (*) Abdu v. Bulgaria deals with a fact pattern which the Court has seen many times over the past fifteen years: racist violence. Moreover, it involves a country which has also stood a number of times before the […]

  • Guest Blogger

And the question still remains: when is it allowed to use tear gas or pepper spray?

March 04, 2014

This post was written by Sophie Forrez. Sophie is a Ph.D. Researcher at the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University. She works on a project on the impact of the European Convention on Human Rights in the Belgian legal order in the early years of the Convention. In two recent cases, Tali v. Estonia and […]

  • Lourdes Peroni

Vulnerability and Economic Abuse in Domestic Violence Reasoning: T.M. and C.M. v. Moldova

February 26, 2014

T.M. and C.M. v. Moldova is one of the latest instances of domestic authorities’ passivity in protecting women against domestic violence. At the root of this passivity was a failure to understand the seriousness and extent of the problem and its discriminatory effect on women. This was reflected in misconceptions about both the nature of […]

  • Laurens Lavrysen

Shitting in ‘closed’ overall not ‘degrading’ according to Strasbourg Court

February 10, 2014

If you look up the word ‘degrading’ in the dictionary, chances are that you find a picture there of a person who cannot help shitting him- or herself. In the case of Lindström and Mässeli v. Finland, the Strasbourg Court however did not consider that state authorities necessarily inflict ‘degrading treatment’ when they are responsible […]

  • Weichie

ECtHR Rules that Police Officers Can Slap Suspects in the Face Without Contravening Article 3 ECHR: Bouyid v. Belgium

December 12, 2013

Recently, the European Court of Human Rights failed to condemn Belgium for two incidents in which police officers slapped suspects of foreign origin – including a minor – in the face during police questioning in relation to trivial affairs. The Court specifically ruled that a one-time slap in the face did not, under the specific […]

  • Laurens Lavrysen

The Court could provide more guidance in prisoner cases

May 30, 2013

When systematically reading the Court’s case-law, it becomes clear that poor conditions of detention remain one of the most dramatic human rights problems in contemporary Europe. The last decade, the Court has done a good job in interpreting Article 3 ECHR as to include a right for prisoners to be held in decent detention conditions. […]

  • Saïla Ouald Chaib

Mehmet Şentürk and Bekir Şentürk v. Turkey: The Court could have shown more empathy

May 24, 2013

Fellow observers of the Strasbourg case law will probably agree with me: when you systematically go through the Court’s case law you’re confronted with the most extraordinary facts that you would never have imagined. Horrible prison circumstances, ill-treatment and torture are sometimes described into utmost details. One can also not remain untouched by cases concerning […]

  • Guest Blogger

Equal treatment for remand and convicted prisoners: Gülay Çetin v. Turkey

April 09, 2013

This guest post was written by Cedric De Koker, academic assistant at the Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy (IRCP), Ghent University. With its judgment in the case of Gülay Çetin v. Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)  added another chapter to its significant body of detention-related case law. Having to pronounce […]

  • Guest Blogger

Non-nationals, living conditions and disability: Situating S.H.H. v. United Kingdom within Strasbourg’s Article 3 case-law

February 19, 2013

This guest post was written by Elaine Webster. Elaine holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and is currently a lecturer and director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law at the University of Strathclyde.  In S.H.H. v. United Kingdom a chamber of the ECtHR, by four votes to three, found […]

  • Guest Blogger

Condemning extraordinary rendition: El-Masri v. the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

January 10, 2013

This guest post was written by Mila Isakovska. Mila holds an LLM in International Public Law and Human Rights from the Riga Graduate School of Law and is currently working as Legal System Monitor in the OSCE Mission in Kosovo. The news of the Grand Chamber judgment in the extraordinary rendition case of El Masri […]

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