Month: March 2021

Pişkin v. Turkey: Observations on the failure of the Lawfulness Test and the Engel Criteria within the context of the Turkish Purge

Guest Blogger Pişkin v. Turkey, Right to a Fair Trial, Right to respect for private life

By Hakan Kaplankaya, former Turkish diplomat, jurist, INSTITUDE member

On 15 December 2020, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR/the Court) delivered its first judgment regarding the purge of a public employee as per the first of the notorious emergency legislative decrees adopted by the Turkish government in the aftermath of the controversial coup attempt staged on July 15, 2016. The government had blamed the Gülen Movement for orchestrating the coup attempt and enacted various emergency measures with no regard for constitutional and statutory imperatives, including the dismissal of 130 thousand public servants. However, the purge was not limited to Gülenists, but also affected other ‘disloyal’ public servants such as academicians who signed a petition asking for peace for the Kurdish problem. The dismissed officials were also subjected to other punitive measures including the cancellation of their passports, a ban on performing certain professions besides the life-long prohibition of public service, as well as other administrative practices preventing them from finding jobs in the private sector, which – all combined – could be argued to amount to a civil death.

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Jurčić v. Croatia: clarity on protecting women undergoing IVF treatment from discrimination

Guest Blogger IVF, Jurčić v. Croatia, Prohibition of Discrimination, Stereotypes, Women's Rights, Workplace

By Jonas Deweer-Vanmeerhaeghe, lawyer at the Belgian federal Institute for the Equality of Women and Men, where he specializes in insurance discrimination and the protection of the rights of transgender and intersex persons. Jonas is a founding member of GenderSpectrum, a non-profit advocating on behalf of gender diverse persons, and he also volunteers for UTSOPI, the Belgian Sex Workers Union.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of any organisation.

Introduction

In the case of Jurčić v. Croatia (application no. 54711/15), on the 4th of February 2021, the first section of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rendered a compelling verdict on a question of discrimination on the grounds of sex and pregnancy with regards to publicly mandated health insurance. The Court agreed with Ms. Jurčić (hereinafter ‘the applicant’) when she claimed to have been discriminated against by several national authorities and courts. These institutions, despite several appeals by the applicant, upheld the notion that her employment had been fictitious since she had been in treatment for in vitro fertilization when accepting a position with a Croatian company. They claimed that her sole motivation for accepting the position was to obtain the pecuniary advantages related to the status of working persons during her pregnancy.

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Yes, Prime Minister (bis): prosecution for satirical collage criticising Turkish prime minister’s foreign policy violated artist’s freedom of expression

Guest Blogger Article 10, Artistic and political expression, Freedom of Expression

Ronan Ó Fathaigh and Dirk Voorhoof

On 2 February 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) unanimously found that the criminal proceedings against an artist’s satirical collage ‘insulting’ the Turkish Prime Minister violated his right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). In an earlier case (Tuşalp v. Turkey) about press articles criticising the then Prime Minister, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the ECtHR also concluded that the Turkish authorities had disproportionately interfered with freedom of political expression, by overprotecting the reputation of the Prime Minister (see our blog entitled ‘Yes Prime Minister!’ here). In its latest judgment in Dickinson v. Turkey the ECtHR confirms that a politician must show a greater tolerance towards criticism, especially when the expression takes the form of satire. Most importantly, the ECtHR found that Article 10 was violated, even where the applicant has ‘only’ been criminally prosecuted, without any sanction being imposed. The ECtHR considers that being prosecuted for insult of a political leader, with a risk of being imprisoned, has a chilling effect on the right to freedom of expression.

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Prosecutors Behaving Badly: Revisiting the Operational Duty to Protect Trafficked Persons in V.C.L. and A.N. v. the United Kingdom

Guest Blogger Prohibition of slavery and forced labour, Right to a Fair Trial, V.C.L and A.N v. the United Kingdom

By John Trajer, PhD Researcher in Law at the European University Institute

Introduction

In V.C.L. and A.N. v. the United Kingdom, delivered on 16 February 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’ or ‘the ECtHR’) was called upon to consider whether the prosecution of potential victims of trafficking could engage state responsibility under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). While it has been recognised that victims should not be held liable for unlawful acts committed as a direct consequence of their trafficking (see the paper on ‘non-punishment’ by the former UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons), this was the first time that an international court had pronounced on this issue.

The result is a judgment which contributes in a significant way to the Court’s existing jurisprudence on positive obligations under Article 4 ECHR (prohibition of slavery and forced labour). Paying attention to the special situation of minors throughout, the judgment introduces important safeguards to ensure that victims of trafficking suspected of committing criminal offences are not unduly deprived of the right to be identified and protected. The ruling also recognises for the first time that a failure to adequately investigate the status of possible victims of trafficking can undermine the right to a fair trial under Article 6(1) ECHR.

Following a summary of the background facts, this post describes the key points addressed in the Court’s assessment. It concludes with a reflection on the judgment’s contribution to the Court’s growing jurisprudence on human trafficking.

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Kargakis v. Greece: Protection in Substance for Detainees with Disabilities but a Web of Missed Opportunities

Guest Blogger Article 3, Detention, Disability, Kargakis v. Greece, Prisoners, Prohibition of Inhuman Treatment

By Andrea Broderick (Assistant Professor of International and European Law, Maastricht University, The Netherlands) and Delia Ferri (Professor of Law, Maynooth University, Ireland)

Delia Ferri and Andrea Broderick have collaborated on several recent publications, including the first textbook on International and European Disability Law and Policy: Texts, Cases and Materials (Cambridge University Press, 2019), and the first Research Handbook on EU Disability Law (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020).

On 14 January 2021, the ECtHR released its ruling in the case of Kargakis v. Greece (press release available in English). The case centres on the conditions of pre-trial detention of Mr. Kleanthis Kargakis in Diavata Prison, the lack of an effective remedy to complain about those conditions and the length of judicial review proceedings. Taking into account the fact that Mr. Kargakis is a person with disabilities and having regard to the duration of his imprisonment, the Strasbourg Court held that the conditions in which he was detained amounted to a violation of Article 3 ECHR, containing the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment. The Court also found that Greece breached Article 13 ECHR, which enshrines the right to an effective remedy, on account of the fact that the domestic court did not adequately examine the conditions of detention and health issues experienced by the applicant.

The ruling in Kargakis v. Greece is noteworthy due to the Court’s finding that the pre-trial detention conditions in Diavata Prison exceeded the threshold of suffering inherent to the deprivation of liberty because the prison facilities were not adapted to the needs of people with disabilities. While the Strasbourg Judges did not explicitly discuss Greece’s international law obligations to provide generalised accessibility measures and individualised reasonable accommodation, the ECtHR acknowledged the rights of detainees with disabilities to an accessible place of detention. In that sense, the decision fits neatly into a long line of previous cases, such as Price v. UK, Z.H. v. Hungary and Grimailovs v. Latvia, in which the Court has recognised the general duty of Contracting Parties to the ECHR to provide accessible prison settings, alongside the obligation to take all ‘reasonable steps’ to address the individual needs of detainees with a disability. Unfortunately, the Court did not refer to, or incorporate into its reasoning in Kargakis v. Greece, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). In that regard, the decision constitutes a missed opportunity to foster convergence between the ECHR and the CRPD.

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The Best and Worst ECtHR judgments of 2020 are…

Strasbourg Observers Uncategorized

Dear readers,

About a month ago, we presented you with a shortlist of candidates for the awards of best and worst ECtHR judgments of 2020 (see our previous blogpost). We would like to thank everybody who participated in the vote. It is our pleasure to announce the results of the poll today.

In the category of best judgment, the winner is… Selahattin Demirtaş v. Turkey (no. 2)!

Selahattin Demirtaş v. Turkey (no. 2): 48.1%

Beizaras and Levickas v. Lithuania: 15.19%

G.L. v. Italy: 12.66%

In this case, the Grand Chamber found that Selahattin Demirtaş, former co-chair of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), had been unlawfully detained and that there had been a violation of his freedom of expression due to a constitutional amendment which limited political speech. Lastly, that Selahattin Demirtaş’ detention, especially during two political campaigns, violated Article 18 in conjunction with Article 5, as it ‘pursued the ulterior purpose of stifling pluralism and limiting freedom of political debate’. Most importantly, under Article 46, the Court ordered the immediate release of Selahattin Demirtaş. The Grand Chamber relied heavily on the Venice Commission as well as third party interventions from, among others, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights to solidify its stance. The results of the vote demonstrate our readership’s support for political freedom in Turkey and that the Court should continue to step up to the plate when it comes to the very real – and dangerous – issue of democratic backsliding.

In the category of worst judgment, the winner is… N.D and N.T v. Spain!

N.D. and N.T. v. Spain: 51.76%

Dikaiou and Others v. Greece: 21.96%

B.G. and Others v. France and Napotnik v. Romania: tied with 7.06%

It is no surprise, given the response to this Grand Chamber judgment, that N.D. and N.T v. Spain has occupied the top spot on our worst judgment list. The Court’s fall from grace (as the Chamber judgment won the best judgment of 2017) is palpable in the human rights community. By electing the Grand Chamber judgment of N.D. and N.T., our readership has sent a clear signal that the Court should rethink the protection (not) offered to migrants concerning police violence and push backs.

In the Aftermath of a Judgment: Why Human Rights Organisations Should Harness the Potential of Rule 9

Guest Blogger Rule 9

Dr. Aysel Küçüksu, Postdoctoral Fellow, iCourts, University of Copenhagen[1]

Introduction

NGOs and NHRIs – collectively referred to as human rights organisations (HROs) – have long enjoyed a certain celebrity for impactful litigation at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), but what do they do once the desired judgment has been handed down? Do they disperse or do they follow up, and if the latter, what does their follow-up look like? These and similar questions demarcate the largely uncharted territory that is HRO participation in the ECtHR execution process. As elusive as their responses might appear, the data to formulate them is all there, publicly available and easily accessible on the Court’s HUDOC-EXEC website in the form of Rule 9 communications. Yet, despite their power to improve our understanding of human rights’ judgments implementation, those communications have largely escaped scholarly attention. This can be attributed to the fact that, until recently, focus on HRO mobilisation within the ECtHR context has concentrated on the period preceding the delivery of a judgment. Though this trend is slowly changing, and studies of HRO participation in ECtHR post-judgment universe are steadily multiplying, attention to the Rule 9 procedure remains scarce.

This has left a huge gap in the scholarship on the invaluable monitoring role NGOs and NHRIs have been afforded with since the introduction of Rule 9 to the Rules of the Committee of Ministers (CM) in 2006. In an effort to address the gap, this entry will focus on explaining the Rule 9 procedure and increase both knowledge of, and recourse to it. Governing the involvement of NGOs in the execution phase of ECtHR judgments, the Rule 9 procedure has done wonders to diversify and democratize access to the accountability mechanisms offered by the ECtHR and Council of Europe (CoE) more generally, and created an unprecedented feedback mechanism that allows the CM, as the relevant supervisory body, to receive valuable, contextualized assessments of the execution process from HROs. Despite that, recourse to the procedure remains low, with studies showing that limited HRO engagement with the implementation process is partly due to lack of awareness as to how to do so. The aim of this post is help address this issue by spreading awareness of this formal avenue. In this way, every HRO which has a stake in the implementation of a particular ECtHR judgment would have the tools to harness its potential. In a time when 43% of all the leading cases delivered by the Court are still pending implementation, Rule 9 communications can help achieve full compliance by engaging domestic actors with an insider understanding of what home-grown remedies need to look like in order to work.

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The right to privacy used as a modern pillory in L.B. v. Hungary

Guest Blogger Article 8, L.B. v. Hungary, Right to Private Life, Right to respect for private life, Tax law

By Liesa Keunen, PhD researcher at Ghent and Antwerp University, Belgium. Liesa Keunen is working on the research project ‘Tax audits on big data: exploring the legitimacy and limits in light of the prohibition of fishing expeditions’ (Ghent & Antwerp University, FWO). She is also a member of the research group Law & Technology, the Human Rights Centre and PIXLES (Privacy, Information Exchange, Law Enforcement and Surveillance), all established at the Faculty of Law and Criminology at Ghent University. At the University of Antwerp, she is a member of DigiTax (Centre of Excellence that researches the challenges and opportunities of digitalisation for taxation).

The fourth section of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered a remarkable judgment in the case of L.B. v. Hungary (application no. 36345/16) on January 12, 2021. The publication of taxpayers’ personal data on the tax authority’s website for failing to fulfil their tax obligations constitutes no violation of the right to private life as established under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). In this case, the personal data published included the applicant’s name, home address, tax identification number, and the amount of unpaid tax he owed. The ECtHR clearly prioritises the Hungarian legislature’s choice to make the identity of persons who fail to respect their tax obligations publicly available in order to improve payment discipline and protect the business interests of third parties over the data subject’s right to privacy.

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