In a new judgment, the European Court of Human Rights has addressed a novel issue in human rights law: whether allowing medical students to observe a childbirth without the mother’s explicit consent violated her right to privacy. [ECtHR Press Release] The applicant, Ms. Yevgeniya Konovalova, argued that the unauthorized presence of medical students during her childbirth unlawfully interfered with her
Read moreLast week, the European Court of Human Rights released a decision in favor of Italian parents whose attempts to give their child her mother’s surname were frustrated by the State’s adherence to traditional naming practices. ECtHR, Cusan and Fazzo v. Italy, no. 77/07, Judgment of 7 January 2014 (French only). The Court found the State’s refusal to allow a mother
Read moreLast week, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression presented his report to the UN Human Rights Council concerning “the implications of States’ surveillance of communication on the exercise of the human rights to privacy and to freedom of opinion and expression.” These rights have their roots in the International Covenant
Read moreIn late January, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) elaborated on the right to private and family life, as protected by the European Convention on Human Rights, in two new judgments – one concerning restrictions on the ability to establish one’s paternity and the other involving enforcement of a non-custodial parent’s visiting privileges. The European Court’s caselaw on parents’ and
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Last Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights held in El Haski v. Belgium, no. 649/08, Judgment of 25 September 2012, that Belgium should have excluded evidence where there was a real risk that the evidence had been obtained through torture or inhuman or degrading treatment. ECtHR, El Haski v. Belgium, no. 649/08, Judgment of 25 September 2012 (available in French only). The Court
Read moreIn 2008, the European Court of Human Rights held that Switzerland’s decision to ban an immigrant from the country indefinitely violated his right to protection of private and family life (Article 8), when that decision was based on his criminal convictions (some committed as a juvenile), and did not take into account his health problem, personal and family ties in
Read moreOn June 24, the European Court of Human Rights issued its decision in Schalk and Kopf v. Austria (App. No. 30141/04), concerning the right of same-sex couples to marry. (See the press release and judgment). Although the Court – for the first time – recognized that same-sex relationships fall within the purview of the Convention’s protection of ‘family life’, the Court
Read moreThe European Court of Human Rights issued a number of decisions this week and last against a number of States, including Poland, Slovakia, Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Albania, Romania, Italy, Serbia and the United Kingdom. Several of these recent judgments involved individuals who had been internally displaced by conflict or unrest, while others involved rights protected by Article 8 of the Convention (pertaining
Read moreThe European Court of Human Rights issued Chamber judgments in a diverse group of cases this week, finding: Russia responsible for violating, inter alia, article 6.2 (presumption of innocence) for a politician’s public comments about a defendant who had been criminally charged with rape and was pending trial at the time (Kuzmin v. Russia); Moldova responsible for violating article 2
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