Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: Right to Life

  • Cornelia Klocker

Estemirova v. Russia: A missed opportunity for the protection of human rights defenders

October 08, 2021

By Dr Cornelia Klocker Does the finding of an ineffective investigation and a violation of the duty to cooperate compensate for a non-engagement with the substantive limb of Article 2 ECHR? Natalia Estemirova was one of the most prominent human rights defenders in Chechnya, investigating and documenting cases of enforced disappearances, abductions, torture and extrajudicial […]

  • Dr. Dilek Kurban

Gasangusenov v. Russia and the right to life: When the ECtHR establishes state responsibility with the wrong reasoning

July 05, 2021

Dr Dilek Kurban (Fellow and Lecturer, Hertie School, and Max Weber post-doctoral fellow, EUI, 2021-2022) What should a supranational human rights court do when faced with a case concerning extrajudicial execution of civilians by a state agent? Certainly not what the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or the Court) has done in the case […]

  • Aurélie Van Baelen

WHAT IS FAIR IN LAW & WAR? Discussing States’ conduct and compliance with human rights standards during military operations abroad in Hanan v. Germany

April 09, 2021

Aurélie Van Baelen, researcher at the Human Rights Centre (University of Ghent) Introduction On 16 February 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered its long-awaited judgment in Hanan v. Germany (application no. 4871/16). The ruling presents another episode in the saga of cases regarding States’ conduct, and more specifically their compliance with international […]

  • Guest Blogger

An Endeavor Towards More Situational Positive Obligations Stemming from Article 2: Case of Kotilainen and others v. Finland

October 16, 2020

Elina Pekkarinen is a university instructor and PhD candidate in Tampere University. Her dissertation concerns the contextual interpretation of rights laid down in the European Convention Introduction On 17 September 2020, the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgement in the case of Kotilainen and others v. Finland (application no.62439/12). The ECtHR found that […]

  • Guest Blogger

An Azeri kills an Armenian soldier at a NATO training in Budapest: the ECtHR decides a rare case of State responsibility and presidential pardon

June 29, 2020

By Cedric Ryngaert and Kushtrim Istrefi On 26 May 2020, the European Court of Human Rights rendered a chamber judgment in Makuchyan and Minasyan v. Azerbaijan and Hungary. The case concerns a soldier from Azerbaijan, R.S., who killed an Armenian soldier and attempted to kill another one while on a NATO training in Budapest. R.S. […]

  • Guest Blogger

Positive Obligations in Crisis

April 07, 2020

Dr Natasa Mavronicola is Reader in Law at Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham. She has written extensively on the right to life and the right not to be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. She is co-editor of Lavrysen & Mavronicola (eds), Coercive Human Rights: Positive Duties to Mobilise […]

  • Guest Blogger

A worrisome reasoning by the Strasbourg Court in a domestic violence case: Kurt v. Austria

August 13, 2019

By Zane Ratniece On 4 July 2019, a Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (‘Court’) delivered a judgment in Kurt v. Austria. The case concerned a disturbing situation of domestic violence, which escalated over time and ended with the killing of the applicant’s son by her violent husband. (para. 3) The Chamber found that […]

  • Guest Blogger

The Right to Life and the Scope of Control: Fernandes de Oliveira v Portugal

March 18, 2019

By Peter Bartlett (Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust Professor of Mental Health Law, Institute of Mental Health and School of Law, University of Nottingham) On its face, this case considers the duty of the State to protect the lives of voluntary (or informal) psychiatric patients under Article 2 of the ECHR (right to life).  Below the […]

  • Laurens Lavrysen

Medical negligence after Lopes de Sousa Fernandes: a blank check to the Member States with respect to the substance of the right to life?

February 08, 2018

In the Lopes de Sousa Fernandes v. Portugal judgment of 19 December, the Grand Chamber made an attempt to clarify the Court’s case law in the area of medical negligence. Traditionally, the Court has examined cases of death resulting from alleged medical negligence almost exclusively from the viewpoint of the procedural obligations under Article 2. […]

  • Strasbourg Observers

One-way ticket to Sudan: standard-setting, yet disconnection between reasoning and outcome in N.A. v. Switzerland?

June 26, 2017

By Ellen Desmet, assistant professor of migration law at Ghent University On 30 May 2017, the European Court of Human Rights decided two cases regarding the expulsion of rejected asylum seekers by Switzerland to Sudan. In A.I. v. Switzerland, the Court held unanimously that there would be a violation of Articles 2 and 3 ECHR […]

  • Guest Blogger

Victims placed at the centre in Beslan School Siege Judgment (Tagayeva and Others v. Russia)

May 24, 2017

By Jessica Gavron and Jarlath Clifford, European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC, based at Middlesex University School of Law) Last month the European Court of Human Rights (“the Court”) found that Russia violated the right to life of 409 victims of the Beslan school siege. The judgment in Tagayeva and Others v. Russia has been […]

  • Lourdes Peroni

Talpis v. Italy: Elements to Show An Article 14 Violation in Domestic Violence Cases

April 19, 2017

What are the elements necessary to support a finding of discrimination in domestic violence cases? In the recent case of Talpis v. Italy, two judges voted against an Article 14 violation. The dissenting opinions offer an opportunity to reflect on this and other broader questions that may be relevant for future cases. The questions flow […]

  • Eva Brems

Trivializing anti-personnel mines and ignoring childness: Sarıhan v Turkey

January 27, 2017

In an astonishingly laconic judgment (available only in French), the Court found no violation in the case of a 12-year old who was wounded by an anti-personnel mine while herding his sheep. Facts and Ruling The facts in this case date back to the summer of 2003, in a Kurdish village in East Turkey, not […]

  • Guest Blogger

It is time for the European Court to step into the business and human rights debate: A comment on Özel & Others v. Turkey

December 07, 2015

By Lieselot Verdonck, doctoral researcher at the Human Rights Centre (Ghent University) and fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders (Belgium). Özel & Others v. Turkey neatly fits into established case law of the European Court regarding human rights violations in which companies are involved. This is precisely the reason why the judgment may disappoint […]

  • Guest Blogger

From Therapeutic Abstention to the Right to Die? The Case of Lambert and Others v. France

July 06, 2015

This guest post was written by Konstantin Tretyakov, S.J.D. at Harvard Law School. On June 5th, 2015, the European Court of Human Rights (the ECHR) delivered its judgment in the case of Lambert and Others v. France. The case was about end-of-life decision-making on behalf of a persistently incompetent patient (Vincent Lambert, a French citizen) […]

  • Eva Brems

Moving away from N v UK – Interesting tracks in a dissenting opinion (Tatar v Switzerland)

May 04, 2015

By Eva Brems The Court’s case law on the expulsion of very ill persons to their country of origin bothers many. The standard  of ‘very exceptional circumstances’ set in N v United Kingdom (2008) is so high that no applicant to date has passed it. The only individual who has won a case of this […]

  • Guest Blogger

Extra-territorial Jurisdiction & Flexible Human Rights Obligations: The Case of Jaloud v. the Netherlands

December 08, 2014

This guest post was written by Cedric De Koker, Phd Researcher, IRCP, Ghent University. With its judgment in the case of Jaloud v. the Netherlands, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has added another chapter to its growing body of case law relating to the extra-territorial application of the European […]

  • Guest Blogger

Occupational Health in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights: Brincat v. Malta

September 08, 2014

This guest blog post was written by Elena Sychenko, Ph.D. student at the University of Catania, Law Faculty, Labour Law Department. On 24 July, the European Court of Human Rights announced its judgment in Brincat and Others v. Malta (the Brincat case).[1] This case was the result of 21 applications of former workers of the […]

  • Guest Blogger

The multifaceted and crucial role played by NGOs at the European Court of Human Rights

August 04, 2014

This guest post was written by Laura Van den Eynde, Doctoral Researcher at Université libre de Bruxelles. (*) On 17 and 24 July 2014, the European Court of Human Rights decided three cases, one against Romania concerning the death of a mentally disabled and HIV-positive young Roma and two other cases against Poland concerning the […]

  • Guest Blogger

The European Court of Human Rights has spoken … again. Does Turkey listen?

July 07, 2014

This guest post was written by Dr Elena Katselli, Senior Lecturer in Law at Newcastle Law School Thirteen years have elapsed since the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) judgment in Cyprus v Turkey in which the Court found Turkey responsible for 14 violations of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its Protocols. […]

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