Human Rights

ECtHR: Lawyer Communication Restriction Violated Rights

August 14, 2017

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that restrictions by the Netherlands on communications revealing classified information between a criminal defendant accused of leaking state secrets and the lawyer defending him hindered the lawyer from providing an effective defense, violating the defendant's right to give information to counsel.
ECtHR: Halving Disability Benefits Violated Property Rights

August 14, 2017

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that the Hungarian government violated a woman's right to her possessions by reducing her disability benefit by half as part of a national change in the methodology for the assessment of a disability, which the ECtHR asserted imposed an "excessive individual burden" on the woman.
CoE Body Warns of "Nationalistic Populism"

August 09, 2017

The annual report of the Council of Europe's (CoE) Commission Against Racism and Intolerance warned of a rise in "nationalistic populism" across Europe in 2016, asserting that "racist insults and xenophobic hate speech have reached unprecedented levels" and that Islamophobia is a "persisting trend."
ECtHR: Criminal DNA Database Violated Rights

August 09, 2017

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that a French law requiring the taking of DNA samples from convicted criminals and their storage in a database for up to 40 years violated the right to privacy by failing to take into account the seriousness of the relevant crimes and by not providing the ability for criminals to apply for deletion of their DNA data.
EU Agency Calls for Halt to Child Migrant Detention

August 09, 2017

Raising questions regarding the proposed source and amount of funds it deems necessary to prevent "stress and trauma" among detained migrant children, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights has called on EU countries to "end" detention of such minors in favor of "alternative housing, counselling, coaching," and other methods.
UK Report Details ECHR Extradition Interference

August 09, 2017

The Daily Telegraph reports that an unpublished study commissioned by the UK Home Office reveals that the UK Human Rights Act, which effectively transposes the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into British law, has prevented the extradition of over 40 suspected terrorists to their home countries.
Observer: Poland Fails to Respect ECtHR Asylum Orders

August 09, 2017

Illustrating the authority of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) over government policies related to migration and national security, Lydia Gall of Human Rights Watch writes that the Government of Poland has an obligation to respect emergency orders from the ECtHR requiring entry of asylum seekers crossing the Belarusian border.
CoE Official: Countries Must Reunite Refugees with Families

August 08, 2017

The Council of Europe's (CoE) Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks has called on European countries to "adopt a more humane and human rights oriented policy" on swiftly reuniting families of refugees in compliance with the "right to family life" under international human rights law.
ECtHR Finds Violation in Jury Instructions on Defamation

August 07, 2017

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that an Irish court violated the right to free expression of a newspaper by refusing, in compliance with Irish Supreme Court case law, to suggest to a jury in a defamation case against the newspaper a range of potential damage awards that could be appropriate, thus leaving the jury free to calculate very high damages.
ECtHR Rejects Complaint from Dismissed Turkish Civil Servant

August 04, 2017

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has dismissed a complaint from a Turkish civil servant who was fired from his position following the failed coup attempt in the country in 2016 because he failed to exhaust his domestic remedies by filing a complaint before a Turkish commission established to review complaints of wrongful dismissal from the civil service.