Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: Right to Respect for Family Life

  • Dr. Tine Van Hof

Verhoeven v. France – Reconciling private international law and children’s rights law in international child abduction cases remains a difficult task

July 12, 2024

By Dr. Tine Van Hof On the 28th of March 2024, the European Court of Human Rights rendered a judgment in the case of Verhoeven v. France (application no. 19664/20). This case concerns Ms Verhoeven, who abducted her son from Japan to France. The French courts ordered the return of the child based on the […]

  • Giulio Fedele

More protection than recognition for same-sex couples in Buhuceanu and Others v Romania

May 30, 2023

by Giulio Fedele, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, giulio.fedele@uniroma1.it With its latest decision in the case of Buhuceanu and Others v. Romania on 23 May 2023, the European Court of Human Rights returned to the subject of same-sex couples and legal recognition. To no-one’s surprise, the Court confirmed what it had already established just five […]

  • Dr. Betül Durmuş

Cupiał v Poland: What Could This Case Offer on Religious Upbringing?

May 04, 2023

By Betül Durmuş On 9 March 2023, the First Section of the European Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’) delivered its decision on a promising case on religious upbringing – Cupiał v Poland – which concerns the criminal conviction of a religious parent for psychological abuse of his children. Although the case carried a great […]

  • Ingrida Milkaitė

Open Minds, Open Hearts: Macatė v. Lithuania on Restricting and Labelling a Children’s Book that Depicts Same-Sex Families in a Positive Light

March 31, 2023

By Ingrida Milkaitė On 23 January 2023, the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR found that restricting and labelling a book of fairy tales as harmful to children solely because of LGBTI content breached Article 10 ECHR. For the first time in the Court’s case-law, Macatė v. Lithuania (app. no. 61435/19) assessed restrictions imposed on literature […]

  • Marie-Hélène Peter-Spiess

A.L. v. France: Domestic Surrogacy, Genetic Fatherhood, and the Best Interests of the Child

February 10, 2023

By Marie-Hélène Peter-Spiess[1] In its recent judgment A.L. v. France, the European Court of Human Rights (the “ECtHR” or the “Court”) looked into the issue of domestic surrogacy and legal fatherhood in a situation where two paternal figures are on the line. More specifically, the case featured a surrogacy-born child that the surrogate entrusted to […]

  • 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 […]

  • Simona Florescu

Walking on a tightrope: some reflections on the ECtHR’s role in assessing the best interests of the child in parental disputes over the child’s religious upbringing

September 23, 2022

By Simona Florescu In T.C. v Italy, the ECtHR was once again called upon to decide on sensitive questions involving divergent parental views over the child’s upbringing. In this particular case, the main question was whether the Italian courts’ judgments ordering the applicant to refrain from actively involving his daughter in religious activities constituted discrimination […]

  • Elvira Loibl

Abdi Ibrahim v. Norway: A new Zeitgeist regarding (intercultural) adoptions at the ECtHR

April 11, 2022

By Elvira Loibl Introduction The case concerned the decision by the Norwegian authorities to allow the adoption of a child by a ‘Norwegian Christian’ foster family against the wishes of his mother, a Muslim Somali refugee. The judgment seems to reflect the new Zeitgeist regarding adoptions, which came to be viewed more critically within the […]

  • Dr. Pieter Cannoot and Dr. Ingrida Milkaite

A.M. and Others v. Russia: ECtHR stands up for trans parents

November 09, 2021

By dr. Pieter Cannoot and dr. Ingrida Milkaite On 6 July 2021 the European Court of Human Rights rendered its highly anticipated judgment in the case of A.M. and Others v. Russia, in which the Human Rights Centre submitted a third party intervention (earlier blogpost summarising our main arguments can be accessed here). The Court […]

  • Alicia Hendricks

Gruba and Others v. Russia: the ECtHR repeats its Konstantin Markin v. Russia jurisprudence but (again) misses a child-oriented perspective

October 01, 2021

By Alicia Hendricks The case of Gruba and Others v. Russia concerns the difference in entitlement to parental leave between policemen and policewomen. The European Court of Human Rights (the Court) ruled in favour of the male defendants by stating that this difference in treatment amounted to sex discrimination contrary to Article 14 (prohibition of […]

  • Helga Molbæk-Steensig

M.A. v Denmark: Is Denmark (still) a good-faith interpreter with legitimate aims?

September 21, 2021

By Helga Molbæk-Steensig What determines whether a state is a good faith interpreter? Can a state claim a generally accepted policy goal as a legitimate aim for human rights interferences if it no longer pursues that policy goal itself? What, if any, role do letters and reports from international human rights bodies play if they […]

  • Elena Patrizi

R.B. v. Estonia: The ECtHR calls for less strict procedural rules for children’s testimony

September 08, 2021

By Elena Patrizi, PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Law and affiliated with the Centre for Children’s Rights Studies, University of Geneva, Switzerland   On 22 June 2021, the Third Section of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter: ECtHR) released its judgment on the case of R.B. v. Estonia, a case concerning the effectiveness […]

  • Dr. Marianna Iliadou

Valdís Fjölnisdóttir and Others v Iceland: cross-border surrogacy and foster care. What about the best interests of the child?

June 30, 2021

By Dr Marianna Iliadou, Teaching Fellow in Medical Law and Ethics at Durham University, UK. On 18 May 2021, the Third Section of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or the Court) delivered a judgment on the contested issue of non-recognition of the parent-child relationship for a child born through cross-border surrogacy. Surrogacy is […]

  • Guest Blogger

Parents in Marginalized and Vulnerable Situations, Family Life and Children’s Best Interests: A.I. v. Italy

June 09, 2021

Dr. Gamze Erdem Türkelli is a Research Foundation (FWO) Flanders Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Law and Development Research Group, University of Antwerp* Introduction On 1 April 2021, the First Section of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rendered its judgment in A.I. v. Italy (Application no. 70896/17). The judgment sheds light on the States Parties’ obligations under […]

  • Guest Blogger

Anti-vaxxers before the Strasbourg Court: Vavřička and Others v. the Czech Republic

June 02, 2021

By Katarzyna Ważyńska-Finck, PhD researcher at the European University Institute anda former assistant lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights. Compared to our ancestors, we are lucky to have at our disposal safe and effective vaccines against illnesses such as polio, measles or hepatitis B. To ensure that the number of immunized people is […]

  • Guest Blogger

Grandma take me home! Visiting rights of (grand)parents and Roma discrimination in Italy: two systemic problems? – Terna v. Italy

May 05, 2021

Francesco Luigi Gatta, Research Fellow, UCLouvain, EDEM The case Terna v. Italy (application no. 21052/18) concerns the non-enforcement of a grandmother’s right of access to her granddaughter, who belongs to the Roma ethnic group. It touches upon two serious issues in Italy: visiting rights and Roma discrimination. With the judgment delivered on 14 January 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) […]

  • Guest Blogger

Honner v France: Damage Prevention and/or Damage Control?

January 12, 2021

By Alice Margaria (Senior Research Fellow, Department of ‘Law & Anthropology’, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology) In 2020, an application concerning the parental rights of a co-mother was to be expected. What is surprising, however, is the ECtHR’s response. In Honner v France, the Court held that the refusal to grant contact rights to […]

  • Guest Blogger

Unuane v United Kingdom: does the Convention require “pure” proportionality?

December 23, 2020

By Lewis Graham (PhD Researcher at Pembroke College, Cambridge) The Fourth Section recently delivered its judgment in Unuane v United Kingdom, in which it found that the UK had breached Article 8 ECHR through approving the deportation of an individual without properly evaluating the impact this would have on his private and family life under […]

  • Guest Blogger

The Bitter Price of Being an Inactive Parent: Lyapin v. Russia

July 29, 2020

By Nadia Rusinova, attorney-at-law and lecturer in International private law at the Hague University On 30 June 2020 the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter: The Court) delivered its judgment on the case Ilya Lyapin v. Russia. The case addresses the divestment of parental rights from a biological father due to his inaction in exercising […]

  • Guest Blogger

Human Rights Centre submits a third party intervention in case concerning the right to family life of transgender parents and their children

July 08, 2020

Judith Vermeulen is a doctoral researcher and a member of the Law & Technology research group, the Human Rights Centre and PIXELS at Ghent University. The Human Rights Centre of Ghent University (Belgium)[1] submitted a third party intervention (TPI) before the European Court of Human Rights in the communicated case of A.M. and Others v. […]

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