Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: Prohibition of Discrimination

  • Merel Vrancken

Not the Court’s finest work: inclusive education and reasonable accommodations for pupils with disabilities in T.H. v. Bulgaria

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 […]

  • Dr. Andy Hayward

Maymulakhin and Markiv v. Ukraine – A Case of Love Conquering All?

July 04, 2023

by Dr. Andy Hayward, Durham Law School, Durham University, a.p.hayward@durham.ac.uk Following the important Grand Chamber decision in Fedotova and Others v. Russia, the Strasbourg Court has handed down two significant decisions on the legal recognition of same-sex couples. In Buhuceanu and Others v. Romania, the Court developed the principles established in Fedotova and weaponised the […]

  • Dr. Ronagh McQuigg

The Evolving Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights on Domestic Abuse: A.E. v Bulgaria

June 27, 2023

by Dr. Ronagh McQuigg The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has now built up a substantial body of jurisprudence on domestic abuse. It is now firmly established that failure on the part of State authorities to respond in a sufficient manner to this issue may constitute violations of Articles 2, 3, 8 and 14 of […]

  • Patrick Leisure

Avoiding the Perpetuation of Discrimination in Education: Individual Positive Measures versus Broad Anti-Segregation Policy in Szolcsán v. Hungary

May 17, 2023

By Patrick Leisure The Szolcsán v. Hungary judgment is the most recent iteration of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, the Court) strongly confronting segregation in schools and discrimination against the Roma people more generally. Unanimously finding a violation of Article 14 together with Article 2 of Additional Protocol 1, the judgment is similar […]

  • Elaine Dewhurst

Sex Discrimination, Age Discrimination or Both? Moraru and Marin v. Romania

March 28, 2023

By Elaine Dewhurst There is currently a gender pension gap of approximately 26% in the EU27 caused by a variety of inequalities but certainly compounded by the fragmented life course of many women. This raises distinct questions around discrimination on grounds of gender and age, and the intersectional burden of both of these grounds in […]

  • Merel Vrancken

Beating Brown v. Board of Education? Overrepresentation and desegregation measures in Elmazova and Others v. North Macedonia

February 07, 2023

Merel Vrancken In the recent case of Elmazova and Others v. North Macedonia, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or the Court) received another opportunity to speak out against (Roma) segregation in education. It rose wonderfully to the occasion. In a unanimous and well-reasoned judgment, the Court condemns the existing segregation and clarifies that […]

  • Dr Elif Askin

Guidance for Assessing Discrimination under Article 14 ECHR: Advisory Opinion on the Difference in Treatment between Landowners’ Associations “having a recognised Existence on the Date of the Creation of an approved Municipal Hunters’ Association” and Landowners’ Associations set up after that Date

January 31, 2023

By Dr Elif Askin The prohibition of discrimination in Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has been criticised for being a ‘parasitic’ right of marginal impact and ‘a kind of a Cinderella provision that has not been given an opportunity to shine’. Over the past decade, however, the European Court of […]

  • Dr Alice Margaria

Freeing fatherhood from breadwinning – Are we ready for (formal) equality? Beeler v. Switzerland

January 24, 2023

By Dr Alice Margaria What is the role of and what is expected of a (legal) father? From a legal perspective, this question that goes well beyond the scope of family law, and the recent judgment in Beeler v Switzerland, decided by the Grand Chamber on 11 October 2022, is a case in point. In […]

  • Balázs Majtényi

The right answer without a reasonable argument? The shortcomings of Bakirdzi and E.C. v. Hungary

January 19, 2023

by Balázs Majtényi On 10 November 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) published its decision in the case of Bakirdzi and E.C. v. Hungary. According to the judgment, the representation of national minorities in the Hungarian Parliament violates the right to free elections (Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention) in […]

  • Péter Kállai

Preferential non-representation? Case of Bakirdzi and E.C. v Hungary

December 20, 2022

by Péter Kállai On 10 November 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decided that the shortcomings of the minority voting system in Hungary constitute a violation of the right to vote under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 in conjunction with the right to non-discrimination under Article 14 of the European Convention on […]

  • Mathias Möschel

Basu v. Germany and Muhammad v. Spain: Room for improvement in the Court’s first judgments on racial profiling

November 08, 2022

by Mathias Möschel On 18 October 2022, the Third Section of the Strasbourg Court, decided two cases dealing for the first time with the question of whether and how far racial profiling by public authorities constitutes a violation of the Convention. The outcome is a mixed one. Whereas in Basu v. Germany the judges held […]

  • Charly Derave & Hania Ouhnaoui

C.E. & al. v. France: Legal recognition of intended parenthood from previous same-sex relationships (between women)

October 07, 2022

By Charly Derave & Hania Ouhnaoui In a judgment of 24 March 2022, the European Court of Human Rights, sitting in chamber, rules unanimously that the French authorities’ refusal to allow the establishment of a legal parent-child relationship between a child and a woman who is the former partner of their biological mother – also […]

  • Margarita S. Ilieva

Oganezova v. Armenia: Purposive homophobia in a deprived legal environment

August 12, 2022

By Margarita S. Ilieva. The author is an equality litigator and analyst focused on hate and stereotyping victims (see, for Strasbourg Observers, J.L. v. Italy: A survivor of trivictimisation and The Rights of Others in Cases of Othering: Anti-victim Bias in ECHR Case Law?). She litigated Oganezova as an EHRAC lawyer. On IDAHO 2022, the Court delivered […]

  • Sarah Ganty and Dimitry V. Kochenov

‘It’s their own fault’: the new non-discrimination standard in Savickis v. Latvia is about blaming minorities for their state-mandated statelessness

August 05, 2022

By Sarah Ganty and Dimitry V. Kochenov Savickis and others v. Latvia is about pension rights. The Grand Chamber found that direct difference in treatment on the grounds of nationality in pensions is lawful if someone decided not to naturalize in the country of residence, in casu in the Latvian Republic. The majority innovates on […]

  • Merel Vrancken

Breaking the ‘circle of marginalisation’ through desegregation measures: X and Others v. Albania

July 01, 2022

By Merel Vrancken In the recent case of X and Others v. Albania on the segregation of Roma and Egyptian pupils in education, the ECtHR speaks up strongly against the wrongs of segregation, fifteen years after the Grand Chamber had first done so in the case of D.H. and Others v. the Czech Republic. The […]

  • Cathérine Van de Graaf

Belgium reprimanded in Anderlecht Christian Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Others: the procedure for recognition of a religion lacks minimum guarantees of fairness

June 14, 2022

By Cathérine Van de Graaf Anderlecht Christian Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Others v. Belgium is one of these judgments where you are reading the reasoning of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter: Court or ECtHR) and you think you know the direction it is going, but it then takes a turn that nobody […]

  • Strasbourg Observers

Proving minority: the Human Rights Centre and CESSMIR submit a third party intervention regarding age assessment of unaccompanied minors

May 23, 2022

By Mathilde Brackx and Laura Cools The Human Rights Centre of Ghent University (Belgium) and the Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR) recently submitted a third-party intervention (TPI) before the European Court of Human Rights in the communicated case of Fatoumata Diaraye BARRY v. Belgium. The case concerns a decision of […]

  • Frederick De Cock

Discrimination based on trade union membership: Zakharova and others v. Russia

May 12, 2022

By Frederick De Cock In the case of Zakharova and others v. Russia, the ECtHR ruled against Russia on its failure to fulfil its positive obligations to ensure effective and clear judicial protection against discrimination on grounds of trade union membership. Despite the fact that the applicants demonstrated a prima facie case of discrimination, the […]

  • Naomi Blomme

N. v. Romania (No. 2): ‘To be or not to be?’- applying Article 8 or Article 14 ECHR in mental-health cases

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 […]

  • Pieter Cannoot

Y. v. Poland: ECtHR case law on gender recognition remains embedded in cisnormativity

April 07, 2022

By Pieter Cannoot On 17 February 2022, the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in the case of Y. v. Poland. The Court unanimously found no violation of Article 8 of the Convention (ECHR), and no violation of Article 14 taken together with Article 8. The case concerned a trans man who had […]

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