November 26, 2021
Sarah de Heer Admittedly, the right to erasure, or more colloquially, the right to be forgotten is nothing new in the European legal landscape. Indeed, this right can be found as far back as 1981 in the predecessor of the Modernised Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data […]
November 23, 2021
By Dr Roxanna Dehaghani Who satisfies the definition of a ‘vulnerable accused’ and does a failure to provide reasonable adjustments undermine Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights? These questions were central to the judgment in Hasáliková v Slovakia. This comment focuses on A’s claim regarding vulnerability and the absence of adjustments, in […]
November 18, 2021
By John Trajer With Zoletic and Others v. Azerbaijan, delivered on 7 October 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (‘the ECtHR’ or ‘the Court’) has signalled once again a growing eagerness to intervene on issues related to slavery, servitude, forced labour, and human trafficking under Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights […]
November 12, 2021
By Dr. Ingrida Milkaite and dr. Pieter Cannoot On 6 July 2021 the European Court of Human Rights rendered its highly anticipated judgment in the case of A.M. and Others v. Russia on the parental rights of a transgender person, in which the Human Rights Centre submitted a third party intervention (earlier blogpost summarising our […]
November 09, 2021
By dr. Pieter Cannoot and dr. Ingrida Milkaite On 6 July 2021 the European Court of Human Rights rendered its highly anticipated judgment in the case of A.M. and Others v. Russia, in which the Human Rights Centre submitted a third party intervention (earlier blogpost summarising our main arguments can be accessed here). The Court […]
November 05, 2021
By Ayşe Bingöl Demir On 5 May 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’) handed down yet another judgment against Turkey finding a violation of Article 10 – freedom of expression – of the European Convention on Human Rights (‘the Convention’). Akdeniz and others v. Turkey concerned a general ban on the dissemination […]
November 02, 2021
By Joseph Finnerty The Chamber’s Carter v. Russia judgment indicates a revolution for the Court’s approach to the extraterritorial application of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). Its publication suggests a turn away from its, to put it diplomatically, conservative case law on the subject. Its innovation also extends to its approach to attribution […]
October 29, 2021
By Tobias Mortier A little political tension in an electoral context is not uncommon. However, the Armenian presidential elections in 2008 were nothing short of riotous. The Court has already dealt with numerous cases in which the events surrounding these elections were contested. For instance, in the case of Mushegh Saghatelyan v. Armenia, the Court […]
October 26, 2021
By Anna Mechlinska On July 22, 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (“the Court”) in Strasbourg unanimously found Poland in violation of Article 6, the right to a fair trial, of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“ECHR”) in the case of Reczkowicz v. Poland (application no. 43447/19). The Court ruled […]
October 22, 2021
By Nele Schuldt The case of Klimaseniorinnen v. Switzerland has attracted much attention since it was lodged before the European Court of Human Rights (European Court, Strasbourg Court) in late November 2020. The applicants, an organization of elderly women, alongside four individual elderly women, alleged that the Swiss government had, firstly, on account of inadequate […]
October 19, 2021
By Natasa Mavronicola ‘We are today perilously close to tipping points that, once passed, will send global temperatures spiralling catastrophically higher. If we continue on our current path, we will face the collapse of everything that gives us our security: food production, access to fresh water, habitable ambient temperature and ocean food chains. And if […]
October 12, 2021
Ignatius Yordan Nugraha ‘September 11th Two Thousand-Fun!’ This phrase was uttered by Peter Griffin in a Family Guy episode, Back to the Woods, while pretending to be James Woods to smear his name, in a clear reference to the 9/11 attacks against the United States of America in 2001. This sort of joke may be […]
October 08, 2021
By Dr Cornelia Klocker Does the finding of an ineffective investigation and a violation of the duty to cooperate compensate for a non-engagement with the substantive limb of Article 2 ECHR? Natalia Estemirova was one of the most prominent human rights defenders in Chechnya, investigating and documenting cases of enforced disappearances, abductions, torture and extrajudicial […]
October 05, 2021
By Claire Poppelwell-Scevak When the Court rendered its judgment on Fedotova and Others v. Russia, I received numerous e-mails from colleagues who appeared to be split over the importance of this case. Camp One thought it was a repeat of Oliari but with Russia as the Respondent State instead of Italy, and Camp Two felt […]
October 01, 2021
By Alicia Hendricks The case of Gruba and Others v. Russia concerns the difference in entitlement to parental leave between policemen and policewomen. The European Court of Human Rights (the Court) ruled in favour of the male defendants by stating that this difference in treatment amounted to sex discrimination contrary to Article 14 (prohibition of […]
September 28, 2021
By Dr. Ramute Remezaite The significance of evidence in the adjudication of individual human rights complaints by the European Court of Human Rights (Court) is indisputable: the Court will normally rely on the evidence provided by the parties and the facts established in the domestic judicial proceedings. In some instances, such as those relating to […]
September 24, 2021
We are happy to announce that the Strasbourg Observers blog is now a joint project of the Human Rights Centre at Ghent University (UGent) and the Centre for Government and Law at Hasselt University (UHasselt).
September 21, 2021
By Helga Molbæk-Steensig What determines whether a state is a good faith interpreter? Can a state claim a generally accepted policy goal as a legitimate aim for human rights interferences if it no longer pursues that policy goal itself? What, if any, role do letters and reports from international human rights bodies play if they […]
September 17, 2021
Aytekin Kaan Kurtul is a PhD candidate in the field of law at Middlesex University, London. His research interests include freedom of political expression, children’s right to free speech, presumption of innocence, peoples’ right to economic self-determination and unilateral coercive measures. In the loving memory of my uncle, Orhan Kaçmaz (28. 02. 1957 – 16. […]
September 15, 2021
Barbara Grabowska-Moroz – postdoctoral research fellow at CEU Democracy Institute (Budapest) Introduction More than five years after the rule of law crisis started in Poland, the international court ruled for the very first time that the composition of the Constitutional Tribunal (CT) in Poland is illegal. After numerous rulings of the Court of Justice of […]