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 […]
April 07, 2023
by Alberto Godioli In her concurring opinion to Patrício Monteiro Telo de Abreu v. Portugal (No. 42713/15, judgment of 7 June 2022), Judge Julia Motoc highlighted the importance of recognising the harm caused by what she referred to as ‘symbolic violence’ against women – namely the circulation and reinforcement of disparaging sexist stereotypes (see Balzaretti 2022 for a more detailed […]
February 17, 2023
by Dr. Rebecca Smyth In S.F.K. v. Russia and G.M. and Others v. The Republic of Moldova , the European Court of Human Rights (the Court/ECtHR) found both States responsible for violations of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) due to the applicants being forced to have an abortion against their […]
September 14, 2022
By Sofia Balzaretti Introduction In the case Patrício Monteiro Telo de Abreu v. Portugal, the Strasbourg Court held that the judicial domestic authorities had not taken sufficient account of the context in which Patricio Monteiro Telo de Abreu, the applicant, had published satire cartoons depicting sexist stereotypes on his blog and that they had thus […]
October 22, 2021
By Nele Schuldt The case of Klimaseniorinnen v. Switzerland has attracted much attention since it was lodged before the European Court of Human Rights (European Court, Strasbourg Court) in late November 2020. The applicants, an organization of elderly women, alongside four individual elderly women, alleged that the Swiss government had, firstly, on account of inadequate […]
September 06, 2021
By Margarita S. Ilieva, a strategic equality/human rights litigator with extensive experience in negative stereotyping. The violent misogyny case of J.L. c. Italie (27.05.2021) is one of few in which the Court expressly addressed revictimisation (neglectful/actively injurious treatment of a survivor by those expected to address the original harm). Prior cases whereby this concept was […]
March 24, 2021
By Jonas Deweer-Vanmeerhaeghe, lawyer at the Belgian federal Institute for the Equality of Women and Men, where he specializes in insurance discrimination and the protection of the rights of transgender and intersex persons. Jonas is a founding member of GenderSpectrum, a non-profit advocating on behalf of gender diverse persons, and he also volunteers for UTSOPI, […]
October 05, 2020
By Maria Kotsoni, a PhD Researcher at the Department of Law of the European University Institute Recently, the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) adopted a series of decisions on equal pay and equality of opportunity between women and men in the workplace. This is the first time the ECSR reviewed states’ compliance on these […]
November 19, 2019
Argyro Chatzinikolaou is a doctoral researcher and a member of the Law & Technology research group and the Human Rights Centre at Ghent University. She is currently working on the research project “Minors and online sexual acts: a study of legal qualifications and regulatory approaches from a children’s rights perspective”. In Pryanishnikov v Russia, a […]
July 31, 2018
Dr. Alexandra Timmer was one of the co-founders of this blog in 2010. She is assistant professor human rights law at Utrecht University, and acting specialist coordinator gender equality of the European network of legal experts in gender equality and non-discrimination. Hülya Ebru Demirel v. Turkey is a case concerning sex discrimination in employment. A […]
March 03, 2016
By Fleur van Leeuwen, LL.M. Ph.D., human rights researcher and lecturer. On 14 January 2011 Selma Civek was murdered by her husband. It was the denouement of years of battering and abuse. Last week the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) ruled that Turkey had violated Civek’s right to life. It deemed it unnecessary […]
August 04, 2015
Guest post by Katrine Thomasen, Legal Adviser for Europe, Center for Reproductive Rights. The Center for Reproductive Rights together with the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU) submitted joint observations to the ECSR regarding the complaint. The European Committee of Social Rights (Committee) recently rejected a complaint filed by the Federation of Catholic Families in […]
July 03, 2014
By Saïla Ouald Chaib and Lourdes Peroni This week, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights published its long-expected judgment in S.A.S. v. France. The case concerns a ban on the wearing of face veils in the public space. Although the outcome of such highly debated cases is always unpredictable, we hoped […]
February 18, 2014
This guest post was written by Yaiza Janssens, PhD researcher and teaching/research assistant at the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University. Yaiza works on a project on the regulation of sexism in Belgian Law. Cusan and Fazzo v. Italy concerned a challenge to transmission of the father’s surname to his children. The applicants in this […]
November 29, 2013
On Wednesday, our research team attended the Grand Chamber hearing at the European Court of Human Rights in the case of S.A.S. v. France, in which we submitted a third party intervention on behalf of the Ghent University Human Rights Centre. The case concerns the French law banning the face veil, a highly debated piece […]
November 20, 2012
Amongst all the rightful concerns about the Strasbourg Court’s case-overload, I often find myself wondering about the cases that the Court isn’t getting. Some structurally occurring human rights violations aren’t receiving the attention of the Court – at least not in any amount that is proportionate to their scale. Domestic violence against women is one […]
November 05, 2012
The Strasbourg Observers are delighted to publish this guest post by Johanna Westeson, Regional Director for Europe, Center for Reproductive Rights. The Center for Reproductive Rights represented the applicants in P and S v. Poland before the ECtHR; see the Center’s press release here. This week, the European Court of Human Rights issued its decision […]
July 23, 2012
The ECtHR has brought a turbulent Dutch legal saga to a close. In the highly interesting Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij v. the Netherlands, the Court has declared the complaint by the Dutch political party ‘SGP’ inadmissible. The SGP is, in the words of the Court, “a confessional political party firmly rooted in historical Dutch Reformed Protestantism” […]
November 17, 2011
This post is co-authored by Lourdes Peroni and Alexandra Timmer The Court has recently ruled in V.C. v. Slovakia, a case brought by a Roma woman who complained that she was sterilized without her informed consent. The judgment is no doubt a landmark decision with crucial implications for women belonging to minority ethnic groups. In […]
November 09, 2011
In Austria, it is forbidden to use donated sperm or ova for in vitro fertilization (‘IVF’). Ovum donation is under all circumstances prohibited; sperm donation is only possible when the sperm is directly placed in the womb of a woman (in vivo artificial insemination). Two Austrian couples complained about this regulation; the first couple needs […]