December 10, 2024
By Eloïse Ward This post concerns the just satisfaction judgment of SCI Le Château du Francport v France. In this case, the European Court of Human Rights more elaborately explains the considerations of equity that justify the attribution of damages than usual. It therefore presents a good opportunity to examine the way in which the […]
December 06, 2024
By Sarah Ganty and Eva Brems[1] Earlier this fall, the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University submitted a third-party intervention in the communicated cases of Obaidi and Others v. Belgium and Al Farj and Others v. Belgium, relating to the ‘post-Camara’ context. In these cases, the Court is faced with similar questions as in the […]
December 03, 2024
by Timothy Roes It was supposed to be a welcome clarification on religious neutrality in public spaces. Instead, the application by two Muslim women banned from wearing full body swimwear in a public swimming pool was declared inadmissible, calling into question longstanding wisdom and causing considerable uncertainty. Departing from well-established case law on Article 35 […]
November 29, 2024
By Kerem Altiparmak and Rumeysa Budak Introduction On 27 August 2024, the Second Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR/the Court) ruled that the principle of no crime and punishment without law (Article 7 ECHR) was not violated for the applicant Şaban Yasak, who was prosecuted and sentenced to imprisonment for membership of […]
November 22, 2024
By Louise Reyntjens and Ruben Vilain On August 27, in the B.D. v. Belgium judgment, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) once again found the Belgian government at fault for its treatment of interned persons in prisons. Under Belgian law, ‘internment’ is classified as a safety measure aimed at protecting society from ‘dangerous’ individuals, […]
November 19, 2024
by Alice Margaria The European Court of Human Rights (the Court) is becoming increasingly familiar with some of the struggles faced by trans parents. Over the last four years alone, it has ruled on at least three relevant cases: two concerning the termination of parental rights and one tackling the especially sensitive matter of parental […]
November 12, 2024
By Alina Tryfonidou The rise of homophobic and transphobic crime is a deeply troubling and pervasive issue in modern day Europe (see the FRA LGBTIQ Survey (2024), pp. 54-76). A key factor behind this is the growing wave of right-wing populism, which has contributed to an increasingly hostile social and political climate, where divisive rhetoric often targets […]
November 08, 2024
by Zoë Grossi and Pauline Charlotte Janssens Introduction On 23 April 2024, the European Court of Human Rights delivered a judgment in the case of Zăicescu and Fălticineanu v. Romania. The Court unanimously held that Romania violated Article 8 juncto Article 14 of the Convention by acquitting two high-ranking military officials previously convicted of war […]
November 05, 2024
By Ola Johan Settem On 24 September 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered a Grand Chamber judgment in Fabbri and others v. San Marino (6319/21). The judgment concerns the rights of crime victims who attempt to pursue a civil claim against the offender by joining the criminal proceedings. The Grand Chamber clarifies […]
October 31, 2024
By Cathérine Van de Graaf, Eva Brems and Stéphanie Hennette-Vauchez The Human Rights Centre[i] of Ghent University, joined by prof. Stéphanie Hennette-Vauchez (Université Paris Nanterre) submitted a third party intervention to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or the Court) in the communicated case of F.D. and I.M. and three others v. France (38506/23, […]
October 29, 2024
By Sarah Ganty In Dian, the Court flushes the promise of the Lăcătuş judgment that ‘begging, as a form of the right to call on another person to obtain his or her assistance, must evidently be regarded as a basic freedom’ (§59) down the drain. The Court adopts a skewed vision of poverty, finding in […]
October 25, 2024
by Dr. iur. Yasir Gökce The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) pronounced recently an interesting judgment in the Yasak case, which appears to negate many of its conclusions in the landmark Yalcinkaya ruling. In the latter judgment, the Court characterised the practice of the Turkish judiciary to equate the alleged download or use of […]
October 22, 2024
By Isabel Kienzle and Jonathan Kießling For the first time, in M.A. and Z.R. v. Cyprus, the ECtHR has decided on a pushback case against Cyprus, addressing the island state’s practice to intercept and return migrants arriving from Lebanon without an individual assessment of their protection needs. As the parties provided conflicting accounts of the […]
October 18, 2024
Deekshitha Ganesan and Richard Köhler On 11 July 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) delivered an important decision in the case of W.W. v. Poland, finding that Polish prison authorities’ denial of access to hormone replacement therapy to a trans woman who was imprisoned violated Article 8 of the European Convention on […]
October 11, 2024
Moritz Baumgärtel On 3 October 2024, the Fifth Section of the ECtHR, sitting as a Committee, delivered its judgment in the case of M.A. and others v. Greece. The Court found a violation of Article 3 ECHR due to the unacceptable living conditions in the Chios Vial and Samos Reception and Identification Centres (“RICs”). Together […]
September 17, 2024
By Donatas Murauskas It is not just the individual restriction of rights that matters—the broader context in which they exist is equally crucial. This is the key lesson from the second review of Ms. Ždanoka’s attempts to overcome the restrictions on her candidacy for Parliamentary elections in Latvia. The recent judgment in Ždanoka v. Latvia […]
September 10, 2024
By Anca Ailincai Immunity of high-ranking State officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction has been a topic of considerable debate for several years (e.g. here). The summer news has provided a rare opportunity to shed light on the more confidential issue of the immunities from jurisdiction and arrest of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the […]
September 06, 2024
Maja Lysienia For over three years now, crisis at the Belarusian border has been testing national authorities’ commitment to human rights. Since July 2021, Belarus has allowed for, facilitated or forced the irregular entry of third-country nationals to the EU. This new state conduct was quickly labelled as an “instrumentalization of migration”. Poland, Lithuania and […]
August 27, 2024
by Dirk Voorhoof 1. – Introduction In its judgment of the 4th June 2024 in the case of Sokolovskiy v. Russia the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) dealt with the issue of religious hate speech as a criminal offence interfering with the right to freedom of expression and information under Article 10 ECHR (see […]
August 23, 2024
By Júlia Miklasová This blog features an analysis of the common threads that link three recent ECtHR judgments related to the Russia-controlled parts of Georgian territory – the de facto entities of Abkhazia and South Ossetia –with the Court’s existing case law. Particularly, the blog focuses on the conflation of the jurisdiction and attribution tests, […]