May 16, 2018
By Dr. Hélène Lambert (Professor of Law at the University of Wollongong, Australia, and Professor of International Law at the University of Westminster in London, United Kingdom) Introduction Two years ago, following the judgment of the Fourth Section of the European Court of Human Rights in Ramadan v. Malta, Marie-Bénédicte Dembour called on the Court to […]
May 08, 2018
Lewis Graham, PhD Student at Pembroke College, Cambridge. The First Section Committee recently handed down its Decision in Gulamhussein and Tariq v the United Kingdom (Application Nos. 46538/11 and 3960/12) (hereafter “Tariq v UK”). It acts as a de facto appeal from a UK Supreme Court decision handed down seven years ago, and sees the […]
May 02, 2018
By Sien Devriendt and Tess Heirwegh, PhD researchers, Human Rights Centre (Ghent University) The Human Rights Centre of Ghent University[1] has submitted a third party intervention in the case of Zeshan Muhammad against Spain. The case concerns the use of ethnic profiling by law enforcement officers. The applicant, a Pakistani citizen, was stopped for a […]
April 25, 2018
Written by Dr Alan Greene, Assistant Professor at Durham Law School* In Ireland v The United Kingdom, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR; the Court) in Chamber formation refused to revise its 1978 judgment regarding whether British security forces’ use of the so-called ‘five techniques’ of interrogation during the conflict in Northern Ireland amounted to […]
April 18, 2018
By Janneke Gerards (professor of fundamental rights law, Utrecht University) and Sarah Lambrecht (researcher, Research Group Government and Law, UAntwerp and law clerk at the Belgian Constitutional Court[1]) At the High Level Conference meeting in Copenhagen on 12 and 13 April 2018 under the Danish Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of […]
April 11, 2018
By Pieter Cannoot, PhD researcher at the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University On 6 February 2018, the European Court of Human Rights declared the application of Francine Bonnaud and Patricia Lecoq, two French women who were in a relationship at the time of the relevant facts, manifestly ill-founded. The application concerned the refusal by […]
April 06, 2018
On Friday 4 May 2018, the Grassrootsmobilise Programme organizes a conference “Between state and citizen: religion at the ECtHR”, preceded by a public event on Thursday 3 May on “Religion and Secularism: does the Court go too far – or not far enough?” Strasbourg Observer Prof. Dr. Eva Brems participates in the latter event. This […]
April 03, 2018
Written by Senem Gurol, PhD candidate at Ghent University Introduction After the failed coup d’etat in Turkey, critics have raised concerns about the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR or the Court) ability and willingness to provide an effective remedy for the human rights violations occurred. These concerns arose from the Strasbourg Court’s recent inadmissibility decisions […]
March 30, 2018
By Dr. Mark Klaassen, Assistant professor at the Institute of Immigration Law (Leiden University) Introduction On 1 March 2018, the Fifth Section of the Court unanimously held in T.C.E. v. Germany that the revocation of the right of residence in Germany of a Nigerian national after being criminally convicted for a drugs related offence did […]
March 28, 2018
By Corina Heri, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam On 15 March 2018, the ECtHR’s Grand Chamber issued its first judgment of the year. The case in question is Naït-Liman v. Switzerland, and it concerns the right of a refugee to seize a Swiss court with a civil claim for damages resulting from torture […]
March 27, 2018
Dear readers, Together with Dr. Natasa Mavronicola (University of Birmingham), I’m co-organizing an expert seminar on “Positive obligations under the ECHR and the Criminal Law: towards a Coercive Human Rights Law?”, which will take place in Ghent on 25 May 2018. The European Court of Human Rights increasingly requires States to protect ECHR rights by […]
March 22, 2018
By Sara Lembrechts – Researcher at University of Antwerp & Policy Advisor at Children’s Rights Knowledge Centre (KeKi), Belgium Summary In the Chamber judgment M.K. v Greece of 1 February 2018 (application no. 51312/16), the European Court of Human Rights decided by a majority of five votes to two that the applicant’s right to family […]
March 19, 2018
By Ronan Ó Fathaigh and Dirk Voorhoof The European Court’s Fourth Section has held, by four votes to three, that a protestor’s conviction, including a suspended three-year prison sentence, for frying eggs over the flame of a war memorial, did not violate the protestor’s freedom of expression. The judgment in Sinkova v. Ukraine prompted a […]
March 13, 2018
This guest post was written by Ingrida Milkaite, Ghent University * On 30 January 2018 the European Court of Human Rights (the ECtHR, the Court) found a violation of Article 10 of the ECHR in Sekmadienis Ltd. v Lithuania. The main issue at hand was the question whether the national authorities provided ample explanation, consisting […]
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 […]
March 06, 2018
By Dirk Voorhoof and Daniel Simons In a case about a Ukrainian journalist being arrested during an anti-globalisation protest in Russia, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Butkevich v. Russia (13 February 2018) has clarified that the gathering of information is an essential preparatory step in journalism and an inherent, protected part of […]
March 02, 2018
By Sarah Lambrecht, researcher, Research Group Government and Law, UAntwerp and law clerk at the Belgian Constitutional Court[1] The Danish Government wishes to initiate a renewed discussion on the future of the European Convention on Human Rights system, as one of its priorities of the Danish Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council […]
March 01, 2018
By Antoine Buyse, professor of human rights from a multidisciplinary perspective, Utrecht University The very existence of this critical comment series on the draft Copenhagen Declaration of the Danish chairmanship of the Council of Europe shows that the recent publication of the draft was enough to elicit a stream of responses. This possibility for open […]
February 28, 2018
By Janneke Gerards, Professor of fundamental rights law, Utrecht University, the Netherlands The double-faced role of the Court One of the recurring topics in all High Level Declarations is the role the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or Court) should play in protecting the Convention rights. Article 32 of the Convention stipulates that the […]
February 27, 2018
By Leonie Huijbers (PhD Candidate, Utrecht University, the Netherlands) With the publication of the list of priorities for the Danish Chairmanship in November 2017, it became publicly clear that the Danes would push for yet another debate on the future of the Convention system. According to the Danish Chairmanship, such a debate is needed because […]