Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: Best interests of the child

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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

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

Pedersen et al v. Norway: Progress towards child-centrism at the European Court of Human Rights?

May 28, 2020

By Katre Luhamaa and Jenny Krutzinna, researchers at the Centre for Research on Discretion and Paternalism (University of Bergen) Introduction In February this year (2020), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, Court) delivered two further judgments relating to the Norwegian child protection system (Hernehult v. Norway and Pedersen et al. v. Norway). In both […]