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, […]
April 30, 2024
Marion Sandner Two aspects in particular warrant attention in the recently decided case of Diaconeasa v. Romania: First, the continuing longstanding untenable attitude of some actors/authorities towards unpaid care work; second, the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR, the Court) approach to retrogressive measures on entitlements to benefits and State support. In this post, after […]
July 20, 2023
By Merel Vrancken In the case of T.H. v. Bulgaria, the European Court of Human Rights finds that a school provided sufficient reasonable accommodation to satisfy the needs of a pupil with a disability and that no discrimination or harassment existed. This judgment follows several other cases about the inclusion of pupils with disabilities in […]
June 16, 2023
by Ioana Iliescu, Law and Advocacy Officer at the European Implementation Network, a Strasbourg-based NGO working exclusively to advocate for the full and effective implementation of ECtHR judgments. Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (“the Court”) concerning psychiatry in Romania have proven particularly challenging to implement. These cases concern, inter alia, issues ranging […]
January 03, 2023
By Eva Sevrin and Emma Várnagy G.M. and Others v The Republic of Moldova concerns the imposition of abortions and contraceptive measures upon women with intellectual disabilities. In finding an Article 3 violation, the Court has not only added to its case law on reproductive rights, but also contributed to disability rights under the convention, […]
August 30, 2022
By Andrea Broderick On 31 May 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) published its ruling in Arnar Helgi Lárusson v. Iceland. The applicant is a wheelchair user who brought a complaint at the domestic and European levels regarding the lack of accessibility of buildings that housed arts and cultural centres run by the municipality where […]
April 25, 2022
By Naomi Blomme In the case of N. v. Romania No. 2 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or the Court) found Romania to be in breach of its obligations under the Convention in respect of N. for the second time. Both cases relate to the treatment of mentally disabled persons. The first case […]
March 25, 2022
By Daniel Krotov and Yannick Schoog On 3 February 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR; the Court) handed down yet another judgement on compensation for a child’s erroneously undetected disability in the aftermaths of the French “loi anti-Perruche”. Over 15 years after Draon and Maurice, the Court reached a similar conclusion but opted for a […]
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 […]
June 23, 2021
By Merel Vrancken, PhD student and assistant in constitutional law at UHasselt. In the case of Caamaño Valle v. Spain, the ECtHR held that the disenfranchisement of a woman with a mental disability did not amount to a violation of her right to vote under art. 3 of Protocol No. 1, nor did it amount […]
March 12, 2021
By Andrea Broderick (Assistant Professor of International and European Law, Maastricht University, The Netherlands) and Delia Ferri (Professor of Law, Maynooth University, Ireland) Delia Ferri and Andrea Broderick have collaborated on several recent publications, including the first textbook on International and European Disability Law and Policy: Texts, Cases and Materials (Cambridge University Press, 2019), and […]
October 01, 2020
By Merel Vrancken (UHasselt) In G.L. v. Italy, the first section of the European Court of Human Rights decides on yet another case regarding the principle of inclusive education and the right to reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities. The two most recent cases on inclusive education (Dupin v. France and Stoian v. Romania, decided […]
September 05, 2019
By Constantin Cojocariu On 25 June 2019, the Court released an eagerly awaited judgment in the case of Stoian v. Romania, brought by a disabled child and his mother, who complained about the denial of the right to education. The Court, ruling as a Committee, rejected all claims, brutally ending an unprecedented litigation campaign on […]
August 15, 2019
By Morgane Ventura – PhD researcher at the Geneva University (UNIGE) On 18 July 2019, the European Court of Human Rights published its inadmissibility decision in the case of Glaisen v. Switzerland, regarding the access of a disabled person to a cinema. Glaisen complained that the cinema company denied him the access to watch a […]
February 11, 2019
By Johan Lievens (VU Amsterdam) and Marie Spinoy (Leuven Centre for Public Law, KULeuven) In Dupin v. France the European Court of Human Rights saw itself confronted with one of the key conflicts in education law: when parents and state officials disagree on which educational trajectory is best for a child with a disability, who […]
December 03, 2018
By Constantin Cojocariu, human rights lawyer specialised in disability and transgender rights On 25 October 2018, the European Court of Human Rights issued its first substantive ruling under Article 12 regarding people placed under guardianship.[i] Delecolle v. France involved an elderly man who was not allowed to marry a long-time friend under the pretext that […]
March 09, 2018
By Joseph Damamme, PhD candidate at the Centre of European Law of the Université libre de Bruxelles, member of the Equality Law Clinic & Advisor to Counsel (Constantin Cojocariu) in the case of Gherghina v Romania. Economic and time constraints are often used as a justification for refusing or delaying necessary changes to the environment […]
May 10, 2017
By Constantin Cojocariu, human rights lawyer specialised in disability and transgender rights The recently adopted judgment in the case A.-M.V. v. Finland on the right of an intellectually disabled man to decide where and with whom to live makes for a fascinating, although frustrating reading. This is a timely reminder of the considerable challenges remaining […]
January 18, 2017
Guest post by Moritz Baumgärtel, lecturer and researcher at the Department of European and International Public Law at Tilburg University. Moritz recently defended his PhD at the Université libre de Bruxelles. His project was a part of the IAP research network “The Global Challenge of Human Rights Integration: Towards a Users’ Perspective”. On 17 November […]
May 17, 2016
This guest post was written by Constantin Cojocariu, human rights lawyer specialised in disability and transgender rights, who acted as the applicants’ representative in both cases reviewed in this article. The Court’s disability jurisprudence generally concerns the management of compulsion in institutional settings, including with respect to detention/institutionalisation, forced medical treatment or restraint or incapacitation. […]