April 11, 2025
By Koen Lemmens Liability for what others said on social media remains a complicated issue as a recent ECtHR judgment illustrates once again. In Alexandru Pătraşcu v. Roumania, the Court had to assess the applicant’s civil conviction for statements made by him, but also for statements made by other persons, on his Facebook page. According […]
April 08, 2025
By Burak Tahsin Bahce In Novaya Gazeta and Others, delivered on 11 February 2025, the European Court of Human Rights issued yet another judgment against Russia, finding multiple violations, importantly a violation of Article 10 of the Convention. Judge Pavli expressed his concurring opinion addressing a broader issue -the Court’s role as a ‘watchdog of […]
April 04, 2025
By Sophie Bols On 16 January 2025, the European Court of Human Rights issued another judgment, A.C. v. France, on age assessment procedures for unaccompanied minors and held that there was a violation of Article 8 ECHR. The Court emphasises the importance of procedural safeguards, reaffirming some of the findings established in Darboe and Camara […]
April 02, 2025
Violetta Sefkow-Werner The recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or the Court) in the case Cannavacciuolo and Others v. Italy of 30 January 2025 concerns a large-scale pollution phenomenon in the Italian Campania region caused by decades-long illegal and uncontrolled waste disposal by private actors and sustained by the government’s systematic […]
March 28, 2025
Stephanie Motz and Annina Mullis On 7 January 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (Court/ECtHR) published its findings in A.R.E. v. Greece and G.R.J. v. Greece. In these two cases, the Court adjudicated for the first time specifically on pushback allegations at the hands of Greek authorities. Both applications were part of a series of […]
March 25, 2025
By Merel Vrancken In Salay v. Slovakia the European Court of Human Rights held that the overrepresentation of Roma pupils in special education in Slovakia constituted discrimination. The ECtHR’s ruling in Salay v. Slovakia is very similar to that of the Grand Chamber in D.H. and Others v. the Czech Republic in 2007. Nonetheless, Salay […]
March 21, 2025
by Lize R. Glas On 6 February 2025, the Court delivered the judgment Caldarar and Others v. Poland, concerning the demolition of a Roma encampment. The Polish Nomada Association for Multicultural Integration (‘Nomada’) welcomed the judgment as a ‘landmark ruling from Strasbourg’. The European Roma Rights Centre (‘ERRC’) issued a press release entitled ‘European Court […]
March 18, 2025
Dear readers, In February, we presented you with this year’s edition of our annual Strasbourg Observers Best & Worst Poll, where we asked you to vote for your preferred candidates as shortlisted for the categories of Best Judgment of 2024, Worst Judgment of 2024, and Best Separate Opinion of 2024. This year we received the […]
March 14, 2025
By Dr. Alice Dejean de la Bâtie The case Bodson et al. v. Belgium, handed down by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on 16 January 2025, raises several fundamental questions: The legal qualification of the offence of malicious obstruction, the repression of (organised) collective mobilisation, and the leeway given to states in restricting […]
March 11, 2025
Corina Heri On 20 January 2025, the ECtHR issued a Chamber judgment in Cannavacciuolo and Others v. Italy. This environmental pollution case concerns an area known colloquially as the Terra dei Fuochi (“Land of Fires”) because it is notoriously plagued by the illegal dumping, burying and burning of waste on private land. This decades-long practice, […]
March 07, 2025
Dr. Natalie Alkiviadou On the 7th January 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR/Court) delivered the judgment of Minasyan and Others v. Armenia (2025). It addressed critical issues of hate speech, discrimination and the state’s positive obligations under Article 8 (the right to respect for private and family life) in conjunction with Article 14 […]
March 04, 2025
By Grazyna Baranowska On 12 February 2025, the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR held three hearings relating to pushback cases conducted by Poland, Latvia and Lithuania. The cases were relinquished to the Grand Chamber and heard in a single – very long – day, since all the alleged violations occurred within the same broader context […]
February 28, 2025
By Louis Triaille In its Clipea and Grosu v. the Republic of Moldova judgment, handed down on November 19, 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) clarifies States’ positive obligations to protect in-patients with mental disabilities from ill-treatment in psychiatric institutions. The judgment illustrates an increasingly strict scrutiny by the ECtHR on institutional psychiatry, […]
February 26, 2025
8-9 May 2025, Ghent Founded in April 2010, the Strasbourg Observers Blog is soon celebrating its 15th Anniversary. To mark this occasion, we are organizing the Strasbourg Observers 15th Anniversary Symposium on the 8-9 May 2025 in Ghent, Belgium. The provisional programme can be found here. The symposium will be an occasion for real-life exchange […]
February 25, 2025
By Alan Greene It is now almost cliché to suggest that the European Court of Human Rights ‘missed an opportunity’ when handing down a judgment. Often, these laments highlight that the Court decided the case under a given Article of the Convention, and having done so, then declined to review any further allegation. This phenomenon […]
February 21, 2025
Dr. Volkan Aslan In Bakradze v. Georgia, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Georgia had violated Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights in conjunction with Articles 10 and 11 in relation to the applicant, a former judge. The applicant alleged that she was discriminated against in two judicial competitions […]
February 18, 2025
by Philip Leach Introduction With the ominous prospect of further political prosecutions in some parts of Europe, it is welcome that the European Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’, ‘ECtHR’) has taken a significant step to ensure greater accountability. It has done so by developing its case law under Article 18 of the European Convention […]
February 14, 2025
By Alfred Benny Auner T.P. died during a ‘heat march’, merely one month into his compulsory military service. Although the decision to hold the march in extreme temperatures was considered ‘problematic’ by national authorities, and the military personnel involved acted negligently after T.P. collapsed, the ECtHR, in its judgment of 26 November 2024, A.P. v. Austria (1718/21), found […]
February 11, 2025
By Lien Aerts The case of Ferrero Quintana v Spain concerns an age limit applied in a recruitment procedure for police officers. The same recruitment procedure has been assessed by the CJEU, where another candidate also challenged the existence of the age limit (Salaberria Sorondo). Having exhausted all domestic remedies, Mr Ferrero Quintana turned to […]
February 07, 2025
Dear readers, Award season has started, and we at Strasbourg Observers want to take this opportunity to reflect upon last year. The year 2024 has proved to be a challenging year for human rights protection across the globe. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has continued to worsen, and in Eastern Europe Russia continues to persist […]