October 09, 2025
Dr. Faraz Shahlaei & Dr. Antoine Duval *** Between the first and the eight of October, the Strasbourg Observers blog is hosting a symposium examining various aspects of the ECtHR’s ruling in Semenya v. Switzerland. The symposium was curated by Dr. Antoine Duval and Dr. Faraz Shahlaei. An introduction to the symposium and the case […]
August 06, 2025
by Babette De Naeyer Remember 2003? “Metrosexual” was the word of the year, Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” was everywhere, and “Finding Nemo” captivated younger audiences. In the legal world, 2003 also saw the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, the Court) deliver its landmark Appleby a.o. v. UK ruling. In Appleby, the Court had to balance […]
July 02, 2025
By Lorena Sosa The case of I.C. v. The Republic of Moldova intersects with two strands of ECtHR jurisprudence: (1) the Court’s developing understanding of sexual violence, rape and sexual exploitation, and (2) its evolving anti-stereotyping framework, particularly regarding persons with disabilities. Against the backdrop of landmark rulings, this judgment further enriches the Court’s often […]
May 13, 2025
Dr. Anıl Güven Yüksel In Costa i Rosselló and Others v. Spain, delivered on 27 February 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) declared the applications inadmissible, reaffirming the compatibility of protecting constitutional order with the Convention framework. The case concerned several members of the Catalan Parliament who challenged enforcement measures—and, in some instances, […]
May 09, 2025
By Ellen Desmet, Ilse Derluyn and Sara Lembrechts F.B. v. Belgium concerns the decision of the Belgian Guardianship Service to terminate the support of an unaccompanied minor following an age assessment. While the ECtHR found a violation of Article 8 ECHR due to a lack of sufficient safeguards, it did not substantively engage with the […]
October 14, 2024
8-9 May 2025, Ghent Founded in April 2010, the Strasbourg Observers Blog is soon celebrating its 15th Anniversary. At this occasion, we are organizing a symposium in Ghent, Belgium. This symposium will be an occasion for real-life exchange between the blog’s readers, contributors and the current and former members of its editorial team. At the […]
August 23, 2024
By Júlia Miklasová This blog features an analysis of the common threads that link three recent ECtHR judgments related to the Russia-controlled parts of Georgian territory – the de facto entities of Abkhazia and South Ossetia –with the Court’s existing case law. Particularly, the blog focuses on the conflation of the jurisdiction and attribution tests, […]
April 09, 2024
Eva Brems ‘The European Court as the main violator of human rights’, it said on a PowerPoint slide in my ECHR class this semester. This was a presentation by a guest speaker: an attorney with a lot of experience with ECtHR procedures. I had simply invited him to talk about this experience, but he had […]
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 […]
June 30, 2023
Georgiana Epure and Elena Brodeală While there is a growing consensus on the importance of gender balance in the judiciary, women are still underrepresented on the benches of international courts. The European Court of Human Rights (“the Court”, “ECtHR”) is no exception. Despite the steps taken by the Council of Europe (“CoE”) to improve the […]
May 09, 2023
Harriet Ní Chinnéide In L.B. v Hungary, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) applied the general measures doctrine developed in Animal Defenders International v. UK to find that the Hungarian legislative policy of publishing the personal data of taxpayers who were in debt violated Article 8 of the European […]
March 10, 2023
By Kelly Matheson, Anders Carlson and Paul Rink All eyes will be on Strasbourg this spring when the Grand Chamber hears the first two in a trio of cases legally defining the relationship between human rights and climate change: KlimaSeniorinnen v. Switzerland, Carême v. France, and Duarte Agostinho v. Portugal and 31 Others. Courts around […]
November 01, 2022
By Sanna Mustasaari The long-awaited Grand Chamber judgement in the case of H.F. and Others v. France addressed the refusal by France to repatriate the daughters and grandchildren of the applicants, all French nationals, from Syrian camps. The question of whether States should assume responsibility for their nationals, particularly children, who have been detained in […]
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 […]
June 02, 2022
[This post first appeared on the DISSECT blog.] Introduction It has been three months since Europe woke up to the horrific news that Russia had launched a brutal invasion of neighbouring Ukraine—two months during which Ukraine has seen immeasurable suffering and destruction, and two months which have dramatically changed Europe’s human rights landscape. It is […]
February 16, 2022
Dear readers, As we step into the year 2022, we are taking the occasion to look back at 2021. It has been an eventful year: as President Spano points out in the Court’s Annual report, now is a crucial time for human rights law, between technological and societal advances, increasing polarisation and political upheaval, and […]