December 01, 2023
by Dr Steve Foster Disenfranchisement of convicted prisoners in Europe remains varied despite the Grand Chamber’s pivotal decision in Hirst v. United Kingdom No. 2 that any interference with a prisoner’s right to vote had to be necessary and proportionate. Thus, since Hirst the Court has upheld a number of State restrictions on prisoner voting […]
November 28, 2023
by Eva Brems Six members in a room in Ghent and five on a screen have enjoyed unpacking and weighing all the separate opinions in the Grand Chamber judgment in Yüksel Yalcinkaya v. Türkiye. Without pausing for tea, we move on to the other case Irene has selected for our biweekly discussion. Baret and Caballero […]
November 23, 2023
by Sarah Ganty and Dimitry V. Kochenov[i] In Valiullina and others v. Latvia and Džibuti and others v. Latvia, the Fifth Section of the European Court of Human Rights unanimously approved of further restrictions on Russian-language education in Latvia, thereby depriving a huge proportion of the population of the Republic of Latvia of education in […]
November 21, 2023
By Maria Tzanou Do persons outside an ECHR Contracting State fall within the Convention’s territorial jurisdiction if their electronic communications were (or were at risk of being) intercepted, searched and examined by that State’s intelligence agencies operating within its borders for the purposes of a complaint under Article 8 ECHR? The ECtHR’s Fourth Section judgment […]
November 17, 2023
By Gaia Zanotti In the new decision of Pengezov v. Bulgaria the Strasbourg Court was given an opportunity to reassess not only the applicability of Art.8 ECHR i.e. the right to private life- to employment disputes but also the applicability of Art.1 of Prot.1 of the Convention- i.e. the right to peaceful enjoyment of property- […]
November 14, 2023
Dr. Ronagh McQuigg The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has now built up a considerable body of case law on domestic abuse. It is now firmly established that failure on the part of State authorities to respond in a sufficient manner to this issue may constitute breaches of Articles 2, 3, 8 and 14 […]
November 10, 2023
by Aura Iurascu Wondering what a waste management crisis looks like? The Campania region (Italy) experienced one for 15 years. Official orders of the mayors of Caserta and San Nicola La Strada described the acute phase of the crisis as a serious situation caused by massive heaps of waste piling up in the streets that […]
November 07, 2023
by Ignatius Yordan Nugraha In today’s globalised world, a marriage contracted abroad is not a peculiar phenomenon. Same-sex couples from countries such as Bulgaria or Romania may decide to tie the knot in a country where same-sex marriage has been legalised to start a family life. These couples, however, face a major legal hurdle not […]
November 02, 2023
By Dr. Betül Durmuş I remember the first time I learned about Article 132 of the Turkish Civil Code (‘TCC’) in the family law classes in Turkey. This provision imposes a 300-day waiting period for divorced women to remarry unless they medically prove they are not pregnant. As a young woman and a law student, […]
October 25, 2023
by Tobias Mortier Hate speech and violence against LGBTQI+ individuals are on the rise in Europe. In 2022, ILGA Europe reported an increase in both the number of cases of violence, as well as in their severity. As for hate speech, this was by no means limited to furtive cases; politicians in several countries (including […]
October 20, 2023
by Harriet Ní Chinnéide This September, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, the Court) delivered four rulings in cases involving the expulsion of settled migrants from Denmark. In two of them, the Court found in favour of the State and in the other two, it found a violation of Article 8 (right to respect […]
October 13, 2023
by Emre Turkut On 26 September 2023, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights delivered a highly anticipated decision in the case of Yalçınkaya v. Türkiye. The case concerns an application lodged on 17 March 2020 by a teacher who was dismissed from public service through a coercive state of emergency decree, […]
October 10, 2023
by Eva Brems Strasbourg Observers is proud to present a new series of columns to its blog: ‘In the Strasbourg Club’! In these posts, professor Eva Brems, one of our editors-in-chief, presents an accessible, dialogue-style discussion of a recent case. The columns will be based on/inspired by real-life discussions in the bi-weekly ‘Strasbourg Club’, a […]
October 03, 2023
By Harriet Ní Chinnéide In the wake of the digital revolution, questions surrounding the right to privacy and the right to be forgotten have come to the fore. With the digitalisation of press archives, what once required extensive archival research can now be discovered – even sometimes accidentally – through a simple online search. This […]
September 27, 2023
By Tsubasa Shinohara On 11 July 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rendered a significant judgment in Caster Semenya v. Switzerland (App. No. 10934/21, only available in French) after it delivered several judgments in the field of sports (especially, see Bakker v. Switzerland (dec.), Mutu and Pechstein v. Switzerland, Ali Riza v. Switzerland, […]
September 15, 2023
By Emma Várnagy
September 12, 2023
by Benjamin Nurkić In the recently announced judgment in the case of Kovačević v. Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has found a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 regarding the complaint about the composition of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H, and regarding […]
September 08, 2023
by Eva Meyermans Spelmans In the case of Mestan v. Bulgaria, the European Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’) found that a law imposing Bulgarian as the official language to be used in election campaigns violated the right to freedom of expression as enshrined in Article 10. In 2013, Mr Mestan was fined for speaking […]
September 05, 2023
By Jill Marshall The ECHR’s text does not explicitly protect cultural rights. This position contrasts with other international human rights treaties such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. However, through its dynamic interpretation of the ECHR’s different articles, substantive rights have been recognised which may fall under the notion of ‘cultural […]
September 01, 2023
By Anaïs Brucher Camara v. Belgium is the first of what could be a long series of cases on the enforcement of the right to housing and material assistance of applicants for international protection in Belgium. On 18 July 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled on the case of Mr Camara, who […]