Human Rights

CoE Committee Publishes Guidelines on Health Data Protection

April 26, 2019

The Council of Europe’s (CoE) Committee of Ministers recently adopted a set of guidelines on how governments and health care providers must protect citizens’ health-related data in a manner compliant with transnational human rights law.
CoE Body Calls for State Action Against Sexism

April 26, 2019

The Council of Europe’s (CoE) Committee of Ministers has adopted a recommendation containing what it deems to be the first international agreed definition of sexism and calling on CoE member states to pursue measures to “fight against sexism in all walks of life,” including by criminalizing “sexist hate speech.”
CoE Body: Bulgarian Benefits Rules Violate Social Rights

April 25, 2019

The Council of Europe’s (CoE) European Committee of Social Rights recently found that a Bulgarian law limiting child benefits for families in certain situations violated the European Social Charter by failing to uphold the right to social protection and by discriminating in effect against the country’s Roma population.
FRA Reviews National Uses of EU “Bill of Rights”

April 22, 2019

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has released a series of country-by-country reviews examining how each EU member state has used the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in an effort by the FRA to promote the document, which includes social and economic rights, as a “Bill of Rights” for Europe.
ECtHR Issues Advisory Opinion on Surrogacy Arrangements

April 10, 2019

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has issued its first-ever advisory opinion under a mechanism recently extending the ECtHR’s jurisdiction, finding European human rights law requires governments to create a path for recognition of a parent-child relationship between the intended mother of the child in a surrogacy arrangement carried out abroad.
CoE Official Criticizes Poland on Judiciary, Abortion Law

April 04, 2019

Following a recent visit to Poland, the Council of Europe (CoE) Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović has warned the Polish government that it risks violating European human rights law by failing to respect the independence of the judiciary and by weakening women’s “reproductive rights,” including access to abortion.
CoE Official: Conscience Rights Are “Barriers” to Reproductive Choice

March 13, 2019

Council of Europe (CoE) Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović has called on governments to respect “sexual and reproductive health rights” to ensure women have access to services including abortions, citing as a “serious barrier” to women’s rights the refusal by doctors to provide abortions on conscience grounds.
ECtHR Calls for Review of Life Sentences in Ukraine

March 12, 2019

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has called on the Ukrainian government to review every case in which the country’s courts have sentenced convicted criminals to life imprisonment to determine whether the detention is justified and inform prisoners the conditions under which they may be granted release.
ECtHR: Icelandic Leaders Violated Rights with Judicial Appointments

March 12, 2019

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that the appointment by the Icelandic Prime Minister and Parliament of four judges of the country’s High Court against the advice of an evaluation committee was a “flagrant breach of the applicable rules” and violated the rights of an applicant whose case was pending before that Court.
UK Official Raises ECHR as Obstacle to Brexit “Backstop”

March 08, 2019

The Guardian reports that, in recent talks with EU negotiators, UK Attorney General Geoffrey Cox argued that the Irish border “backstop” contingency measure in the UK-EU withdrawal deal could violate the rights, under the European Convention on Human Rights, of the Northern Irish people to democratic representation in EU institutions.