Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: Language rights

  • Sarah Ganty and Dimitry V. Kochenov

Hijacking Human Rights to Enable Punishment by Association: Valiullina, Džibuti and Outlawing Minority Schooling in Latvia

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 […]

  • Eva Meyermans Spelmans

Mestan v. Bulgaria – finally a genuine recognition of linguistic rights?  

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 […]