Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: Right to Respect for Family Life

  • Guest Blogger

Publication of a picture of a 3-year-old, representing him as an orphan, violates article 8 ECHR

July 19, 2017

By Ingrida Milkaite, Ghent University The case of Bogomolova v. Russia concerns the use of an unauthorised photograph of a minor’s face on the front page of a booklet promoting adoption and help for orphans. It proves that the publication of pictures of children without parental consent may have a significant social impact on the […]

  • Guest Blogger

K.B. and Others v. Croatia: the Court’s first steps to tackle parental alienation

April 25, 2017

By Evelyn Merckx, teaching assistant and PhD researcher at Ghent University Children’s position during their parents’ separation remains a delicate matter. A variety of reasons can result in a child refusing contact with a parent in response to the challenging situation. Objective reasons can lead to the child’s decision, such as a parent’s aggressive or […]

  • Guest Blogger

Paradiso and Campanelli v. Italy: Lost in Recognition. Filiation of an Adopted Embryo born by Surrogate Woman in a Foreign Country

April 04, 2017

By Elena Ignovska, Assistant professor, University Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Faculty of Law, Skopje, Macedonia. Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) undoubtedly triggered an earthquake in the concept of parenthood, resulting in a fragmentation of the possible parents: genetic/biological, gestational, factual and legal. Their initial objective was to enable infertile couples to parent genetically related progeny. Yet, […]

  • Corina Heri

The Unbreakable Vow: Marital Captivity in Strasbourg

February 09, 2017

By Corina Heri, Visiting Scholar at Ghent University            It has been the ECtHR’s constant case-law that Article 12 ECHR, while enshrining the right to marry an opposite-sex spouse, does not protect a right to divorce. The fact that the Court has resolutely held on to that idea despite the modern-day legalization of divorce in the […]

  • Guest Blogger

Biao v. Denmark: Grand Chamber ruling on ethnic discrimination might leave couples seeking family reunification worse off

June 13, 2016

This guest post was written by Alix Schlüter, Ph.D. researcher at Bucerius Law School, Hamburg. On May 24th 2016 the Grand Chamber found that the refusal to grant family reunion to a Ghanaian couple in Denmark violated Article 14 ECHR in conjunction with Article 8 ECHR. Overruling the Chamber’s judgment of 2014, the Court held […]

  • Corina Heri

Silence as Acquiescence: On the Need to Address Disability Stereotyping in Kocherov and Sergeyeva v. Russia

May 12, 2016

By Corina Heri, PhD candidate at the University of Zürich / Visiting Scholar at Ghent University In Kocherov and Sergeyeva v. Russia, a Chamber judgment issued on 29 March 2016, the ECtHR held that the restriction of a mentally disabled father’s parental authority had violated his rights under Article 8 ECHR (the right to respect […]

  • Valeska David

ECtHR condemns the punishment of women living in poverty and the ‘rescuing’ of their children

March 17, 2016

By Valeska David The recently delivered ECtHR judgment in Soares de Melo v. Portugal (application No.72850/14) conveys a strong message on childrearing responsibilities and child protection: families living in poverty (mostly led by women) cannot be punished for their deprivation and their children should not be ‘rescued’ from them. Instead, and because children are not […]

  • Guest Blogger

European Court Buttresses Binational Same-Sex Couples’ Right to Family Reunification

February 25, 2016

This guest post was written by Zsolt Bobis, Program Coordinator with the Open Society Justice Initiative’s Equality and Inclusion Cluster @ZsoltBobis The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled in Pajić v. Croatia that Croatia’s former legal regime that had categorically denied same-sex couples the possibility of obtaining family reunification had violated human rights […]

  • Guest Blogger

Mandet v. France: Child’s “duty” to know its origins prevails over its wish to remain in the dark

February 04, 2016

By Evelyn Merckx, academic assistant and doctoral researcher at the Human Rights Centre (Ghent University) The European Court of Human Rights has delivered many judgments about a child’s right to know its origins and whether this right can prevail over the refusal of the anonymous biological parent. In Mandet v. France, the opposite scenario took […]

  • Guest Blogger

No obligation on States to recognize a marriage contracted abroad: the case of Z.H. and R.H. v. Switzerland

January 11, 2016

Guest post by Sanne Konings, Stafmedewerker Familiaal Internationaal Privaatrecht, Agentschap Integratie en Inburgering. On 8th of December 2015 the European Court of Human Rights pronounced a judgment in the case of Z.H. and R.H. v. Switzerland. The main question was if the Swiss authorities violated the right to respect of family life under article 8 […]

  • Guest Blogger

Oliari and Others v. Italy: a stepping stone towards full legal recognition of same-sex relationships in Europe

September 16, 2015

This guest post was written by Giuseppe Zago, Researcher of Comparative Sexual Orientation Law, Leiden University (*) Last 21 July, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Oliari and others v. Italy had once again the opportunity to analyze the status of same-sex couples wishing to marry or enter into a legally recognized partnership. […]

  • Guest Blogger

A.S. v. Switzerland: missed opportunity to explain different degrees of vulnerability in asylum cases

July 16, 2015

By Salvo Nicolosi and Ruth Delbaere (Ghent University) In the recent judgment of last 30 June 2015 in A.S. v. Switzerland, the European Court of Human Rights offers another occasion to reflect on the issue of vulnerability in asylum cases. The ruling represents another episode of the ongoing saga concerning the Dublin System to determine […]

  • Guest Blogger

Family Visits for Life Prisoners: Khoroshenko v Russia

July 02, 2015

Guest post by Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou (University of Surrey) and Filippo Fontanelli (University of Edinburgh) On 30 June 2015, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in the case Khoroshenko v. Russia. With this decision, the Court set the boundaries of State regulation in the area of penitentiary policy, namely […]

  • Guest Blogger

Adžić v. Croatia: The difficult task that child abduction brings

May 11, 2015

This guest post was written by Thalia Kruger, Senior Lecturer, Research Group Personal Rights and Real Rights, University of Antwerp and Honorary Research Associate, University of Cape Town. Adžić v. Croatia is yet another case in the long row of cases about international parental child abduction that hit the role of the European Court of Human […]

  • Lourdes Peroni

Impoverished “Family Life”: Its Problematic Pervasiveness at Strasbourg

December 18, 2014

By Lourdes Peroni At a time when family life takes increasingly diverse forms in Europe and elsewhere, the recent judgment in Senchishak v. Finland clings to the ideal of parents and minor children as the yardstick to determine the existence of family life at Strasbourg. The Court declared the complaint under Article 8 inadmissible, after finding […]

  • Lourdes Peroni

Jeunesse v. the Netherlands: Quiet Shifts in Migration and Family Life Jurisprudence?

October 30, 2014

By Lourdes Peroni Readers familiar with the Court’s case law on family life and immigration will know that applicants’ chances of success are slim if family life was formed at a time when those involved knew that the migration status of one of them was such that their family life would be precarious in the […]

  • Guest Blogger

Biao: Danish family reunification policy does not violate the prohibition of discrimination

April 18, 2014

This post was written by Nadia Ismaili, Ph.D. researcher at the migration law section of the Free University Amsterdam (*) On 25 March 2014 the second chamber of the European Court of Human Rights handed down its judgment in the case of Biao v. Denmark. The case concerned the refusal to grant family reunion in […]

  • Guest Blogger

The application of the European Convention on Human Rights to the case of Leonarda Dibrani

December 18, 2013

This guest post was written by Georgios Milios* On October 9 2013, Leonarda Dibrani, a 15-years old Roma girl, was arrested by the French police in front of her teachers and classmates and deported to Kosovo along with her parents and five siblings. Initially, it was argued that the family had left Kosovo some years ago seeking […]

  • Lourdes Peroni

Family Reunification in Berisha v. Switzerland: The Child’s Best Interests, Really?

August 01, 2013

This week, in a divided ruling, the Court rejected the case of Berisha v. Switzerland. By four votes to three, the Court held that the refusal of residence permits to the applicants’ three children – who were born in Kosovo and entered Switzerland illegally – did not violate the parents’ right to respect for family […]

  • Lourdes Peroni

“Very Weighty Reasons” for Religion: Vojnity v. Hungary

February 27, 2013

It looks like freedom-of-religion season has arrived in Strasbourg. After leaving aside the “freedom to resign” doctrine in Eweida, the Court has just made another move towards greater recognition of the importance of freedom of religion. In Vojnity v. Hungary, the Court clearly recognizes religion as a “suspect” ground of differentiation. As a result – […]

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