Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: Children's Rights

  • Guest Blogger

Parents in Marginalized and Vulnerable Situations, Family Life and Children’s Best Interests: A.I. v. Italy

June 09, 2021

Dr. Gamze Erdem Türkelli is a Research Foundation (FWO) Flanders Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Law and Development Research Group, University of Antwerp* Introduction On 1 April 2021, the First Section of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rendered its judgment in A.I. v. Italy (Application no. 70896/17). The judgment sheds light on the States Parties’ obligations under […]

  • Guest Blogger

Anti-vaxxers before the Strasbourg Court: Vavřička and Others v. the Czech Republic

June 02, 2021

By Katarzyna Ważyńska-Finck, PhD researcher at the European University Institute anda former assistant lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights. Compared to our ancestors, we are lucky to have at our disposal safe and effective vaccines against illnesses such as polio, measles or hepatitis B. To ensure that the number of immunized people is […]

  • Guest Blogger

Victims of ‘vulnerability’: Balancing protection, privacy and participation of child victims in X and Others v. Bulgaria

April 26, 2021

By Prof. Dr. Ton Liefaard[*], Jessica Valentine (LL.M)[†] and Lisanne van Dijck[‡] ‘This is a sad case’ begins the joint partly concurring and partly dissenting opinion of Judge Spano and others in the case of X and others v. Bulgaria. The judgment, delivered by a Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) […]

  • Guest Blogger

Human Rights Centre submits a third party intervention in case concerning the right to family life of transgender parents and their children

July 08, 2020

Judith Vermeulen is a doctoral researcher and a member of the Law & Technology research group, the Human Rights Centre and PIXELS at Ghent University. The Human Rights Centre of Ghent University (Belgium)[1] submitted a third party intervention (TPI) before the European Court of Human Rights in the communicated case of A.M. and Others v. […]

  • Guest Blogger

Pedersen et al v. Norway: Progress towards child-centrism at the European Court of Human Rights?

May 28, 2020

By Katre Luhamaa and Jenny Krutzinna, researchers at the Centre for Research on Discretion and Paternalism (University of Bergen) Introduction In February this year (2020), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, Court) delivered two further judgments relating to the Norwegian child protection system (Hernehult v. Norway and Pedersen et al. v. Norway). In both […]

  • Guest Blogger

An inch of time is an inch of gold – the time factor in child abduction related proceedings: Balbino v. Portugal

March 30, 2020

This post was written by Nadia Rusinova who is attorney-at-law and lecturer in International private law at The Hague University. On 29 January 2019 the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter: The Court) delivered its judgment on the case Simoes Balbino v. Portugal which addresses procedural delay in the context of the attribution of the exercise of parental […]

  • Guest Blogger

Who can represent a child (with disabilities) before the ECtHR? Locus Standi requirements and the issue of curator ad litem in L.R. v. North Macedonia

February 27, 2020

Dr. Gamze Erdem Türkelli is a Post-Doctoral Fellow Fundamental Research of Research Foundation (FWO) Flanders (File Number 12Q1719N) at the Law and Development Research Group, University of Antwerp Faculty of Law. The NGO Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Skopje (HCHR) brought a case before the ECtHR on behalf of L.R., an eight-year-old child with […]

  • Guest Blogger

Child protection and child-centrism – the Grand Chamber case of Strand Lobben and others v. Norway 2019

October 10, 2019

By Prof. Marit Skivenes, Centre for Research on Discretion and Paternalism (University of Bergen) The backdrop for the Grand Chamber case, is the dissenting Chamber judgment of 2017 – Strand Lobben vs. Norway  – about a boy that had been adopted from foster care. Here, the Chamber concluded it had not been a violation of […]

  • Guest Blogger

Parental Child Abduction is back on the agenda of the European Court of Human Rights

July 23, 2019

Simona Florescu PhD fellow, Leiden Law School, the Child Law Department Parental child abduction has been a frequent occurrence for the European Court of Human Rights with the case of O.C.I. and others v Romania being the latest in a series of more than 70 applications. The Court decided these cases in several formations, ranging […]

  • Guest Blogger

H.A. and others v. Greece – restrictive acknowledgement of irregular migrant vulnerability

March 29, 2019

By Elina Todorov, PhD Candidate, Tampere University (Finland) On 28. February 2019 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered a judgement concerning unaccompanied minors in an irregular situation, namely H.A. and others v. Greece.  In H.A. the Court found several violations of the Convention, in particular a partial violation of Article 3 regarding the […]

  • Guest Blogger

FRÖHLICH V. GERMANY: (AB)USING THE CHILD’S BEST INTERESTS TO SAFEGUARD THOSE OF OTHERS

November 20, 2018

By Evelyn Merckx, teaching assistant and PhD-researcher at Ghent University To many, the simultaneous reading of Mandet v. France and Fröhlich v. Germany proves to be a crucial inconsistency in the case-law of the ECtHR. In Mandet v. France, the paternity of a legal father was withdrawn in favour of the biological father, despite the […]

  • Guest Blogger

Justice from the Perspective of an Applicant: meeting Ms Neulinger

November 12, 2018

Simona Florescu, PhD fellow, Leiden Law School, the Child Law Department In September I had the opportunity to meet the applicant in the Grand Chamber case Neulinger and Shuruk v Switzerland.[1] We had a lengthy 4 hours conversation about the ins and outs of her personal situation, the circumstances that led her to taking her […]

  • Guest Blogger

Zherdev v. Ukraine: Article 3 of the ECHR and Children’s Rights at the Stage of Police Interrogation

June 29, 2017

By Prof. Dr. Ton Liefaard, Professor of Children’s Rights / UNICEF Chair in Children’s Rights, Leiden Law School, Leiden University, The Netherlands[1] The Zherdev v. Ukraine judgement of 27 April 2017 by the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter: the Court) further augments the Court’s line of recognising the vulnerable position of children in police […]

  • Yaiza Janssens

A, B and C v. Latvia: gender-blindness and trivialisation of indecent acts against adolescent girls

May 20, 2016

By Yaiza Janssens Not many ECtHR cases that focus on a possible obligation under Article 8 of the Convention to conduct a criminal investigation and even fewer cases where the facts fall exclusively concern minors. In A, B and C v. Latvia, a Chamber judgment issued on 31 March 2016, the applicants complained that the […]

  • Guest Blogger

Mandet v. France: Child’s “duty” to know its origins prevails over its wish to remain in the dark

February 04, 2016

By Evelyn Merckx, academic assistant and doctoral researcher at the Human Rights Centre (Ghent University) The European Court of Human Rights has delivered many judgments about a child’s right to know its origins and whether this right can prevail over the refusal of the anonymous biological parent. In Mandet v. France, the opposite scenario took […]

  • Guest Blogger

Adžić v. Croatia: The difficult task that child abduction brings

May 11, 2015

This guest post was written by Thalia Kruger, Senior Lecturer, Research Group Personal Rights and Real Rights, University of Antwerp and Honorary Research Associate, University of Cape Town. Adžić v. Croatia is yet another case in the long row of cases about international parental child abduction that hit the role of the European Court of Human […]

  • Guest Blogger

The State’s Duty to Protect Children from Abuse: Justice in Strasbourg in O’Keeffe v. Ireland

March 13, 2014

This guest post was written by Professor Ursula Kilkelly. Professor Kilkelly is Director of the Child Law Clinic at the Faculty of Law of University College Cork, Ireland (see more info below the post, at *). On 28 January 2014, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights handed down its judgment in […]

  • Lourdes Peroni

Family Reunification in Berisha v. Switzerland: The Child’s Best Interests, Really?

August 01, 2013

This week, in a divided ruling, the Court rejected the case of Berisha v. Switzerland. By four votes to three, the Court held that the refusal of residence permits to the applicants’ three children – who were born in Kosovo and entered Switzerland illegally – did not violate the parents’ right to respect for family […]

  • Laurens Lavrysen

Less stringent measures and migration detention: overruling Saadi v. UK?

January 25, 2012

The recent cases of Yoh-Ekale Mwanje v. Belgium and Popov v. France illustrate how a ‘less stringent measures test’ is entering the Court’s reasoning under Art. 5 § 1 ECHR in migration detention cases. The Court appears to be slowly moving away from its deferential approach in Saadi v. The United Kingdom. This might result […]

  • Alexandra Timmer

Child maintenance and gender stereotypes: understanding J.M. v. the UK

October 11, 2010

A recent case, J.M. v. the United Kingdom, startled our research team. The case concerns a British child support rule that is at first glance counter-intuitive. The rule, from the Child Support Act 1991, states that the parent who does not have the primary care of the children is required to pay child support. So […]

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