January 16, 2024
by Dr. Mateusz Wąsik ‘Member States are required to provide a legal framework allowing same‑sex couples to be granted adequate recognition and protection of their relationship’, ruled the ECtHR in the latest judgment for same-sex couples in the case of Przybyszewska and Others v. Poland on 12 December 2023. Academics and practitioners may say nihil […]
November 07, 2023
by Ignatius Yordan Nugraha In today’s globalised world, a marriage contracted abroad is not a peculiar phenomenon. Same-sex couples from countries such as Bulgaria or Romania may decide to tie the knot in a country where same-sex marriage has been legalised to start a family life. These couples, however, face a major legal hurdle not […]
October 25, 2023
by Tobias Mortier Hate speech and violence against LGBTQI+ individuals are on the rise in Europe. In 2022, ILGA Europe reported an increase in both the number of cases of violence, as well as in their severity. As for hate speech, this was by no means limited to furtive cases; politicians in several countries (including […]
September 27, 2023
By Dr Tsubasa Shinohara On 11 July 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rendered a significant judgment in Caster Semenya v. Switzerland (App. No. 10934/21, only available in French) after it delivered several judgments in the field of sports (especially, see Bakker v. Switzerland (dec.), Mutu and Pechstein v. Switzerland, Ali Riza v. […]
July 04, 2023
by Dr. Andy Hayward, Durham Law School, Durham University, a.p.hayward@durham.ac.uk Following the important Grand Chamber decision in Fedotova and Others v. Russia, the Strasbourg Court has handed down two significant decisions on the legal recognition of same-sex couples. In Buhuceanu and Others v. Romania, the Court developed the principles established in Fedotova and weaponised the […]
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 […]
April 12, 2023
By Claire Poppelwell-Scevak As we continue 2023, with the rise of the far right, the war in Ukraine and Russia’s absence at the Council of Europe, it may be difficult to be optimistic. However, I think that with the Grand Chamber’s judgment in Fedotova and Others v. Russia, there can be, at least, a sense […]
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 […]
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 […]
March 21, 2023
By Titouan Berhaut-Streel & Charly Derave On 8 September 2022, the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgement in Drelon v. France. The case concerns Mr Drelon’s denied applications to donate blood because he refused to answer whether he had ever had sex with other men and therefore to disclose his alleged sexual orientation. […]
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 […]
December 23, 2022
by Nikos Koumoutzis Since 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has been hearing cross-border surrogacy cases concerning the right to recognition of parentage of the child with its intended parents within the framework of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). A fairly large number of such cases have been reported already, and […]
August 12, 2022
By Margarita S. Ilieva. The author is an equality litigator and analyst focused on hate and stereotyping victims (see, for Strasbourg Observers, J.L. v. Italy: A survivor of trivictimisation and The Rights of Others in Cases of Othering: Anti-victim Bias in ECHR Case Law?). She litigated Oganezova as an EHRAC lawyer. On IDAHO 2022, the Court delivered […]
April 07, 2022
By Pieter Cannoot On 17 February 2022, the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in the case of Y. v. Poland. The Court unanimously found no violation of Article 8 of the Convention (ECHR), and no violation of Article 14 taken together with Article 8. The case concerned a trans man who had […]
November 12, 2021
By Dr. Ingrida Milkaite and dr. Pieter Cannoot 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 on the parental rights of a transgender person, in which the Human Rights Centre submitted a third party intervention (earlier blogpost summarising our […]
February 25, 2021
By Sarah Schoentjes, PhD Researcher at the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University, and Dr. Pieter Cannoot, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University and Visiting Professor at the University of Antwerp In the case of X and Y v. Romania, the ECtHR has declared one more abusive requirement for gender recognition […]
December 16, 2020
By Mattias Decoster (PhD researcher at Ghent University and University of Antwerp) and Sarah Schoentjes (PhD researcher at Ghent University). The Human Rights Centre of Ghent University[1], in collaboration with the Equality Law Clinic from the Université Libre de Bruxelles[2], submitted a third party intervention before the European Court of Human Rights in the case […]