Human Rights

CoE Official Seeks Abolition of Migrant Detention

February 03, 2017

In a recent comment, the Council of Europe's (CoE) Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks asserts that, given the "serious human rights concerns" involved in preventing migrants' free movement, governments must develop alternatives to detaining migrants that comply with European human rights law.
CoE Body Produces "Big Data" Guidelines

February 03, 2017

The Committee of the Council of Europe's (CoE) Data Protection Convention has issued "Guidelines on Big Data" advising entities processing "big data" to comply with global human rights norms on handling data, including by establishing "ethical committees" to analyze the human rights impacts of data processing.
EU Agency Prioritizes Extensive "Data Rights"

February 03, 2017

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights has published a press release signaling the priority it places on the "data rights" of citizens under European human rights law and its support of new EU data protection rules that will solidify perceived protections like the "right to be forgotten" and the "right of data portability."
Agency Pushes Global Rights Agenda in EU Social Scheme

February 01, 2017

Consulting on the European Commission's plan for a European Pillar of Social Rights, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights called for the Pillar to be based on social provisions included in the EU Charter for Fundamental Rights and in global human rights instruments.
EU Chief Calls for Guaranteed Income

January 27, 2017

Reuters reports that, in the lead-up to the European Commission's ambitious overhaul of social rights policy through its European Pillar of Social Rights, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker asserted that all EU members should guarantee a minimum salary for workers and a minimum level of income for those who are unemployed.
EU Consults Global Actors on Social Rights

January 26, 2017

The European Commission recently hosted a high-level conference in Brussels seeking input from the global community, including "social partners and civil society," on its plans for a European Pillar of Social Rights that will seek to advance "fairness and social justice in Europe."
MEPs Call for Centralization of Labor Policy

January 26, 2017

Members of the European Parliament have approved a report calling on the European Commission to include in its plans for a European Pillar of Social Rights "EU-wide rules on decent working conditions to apply to all forms of employment" and the introduction of EU social security cards.
CoE Chief Consults on EU "Social Rights" Plans

January 25, 2017

In his opinion welcoming the development by EU institutions of a European Pillar of Social Rights, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CoE) Thorbjørn Jagland calls on EU officials to incorporate within this Pillar the CoE's European Social Charter, which seeks to guarantee nontraditional social and economic "human rights" throughout Europe.
ECtHR Finds Faulty Court Interpretation of Criminal Law

January 25, 2017

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that Slovenian courts violated the human rights of a prisoner by failing to properly resolve a legislative mistake in a criminal sentencing law, effectively reducing the prisoner's sentence by ten years, to the advantage of the prisoner.
NGO Criticizes "Shortcomings" in ECtHR Migration Decision

January 23, 2017

Lawyers from the nongovernmental organization Open Society Foundations have criticized a decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) Grand Chamber for "watering down" human rights law as interpreted by a lower judicial body by permitting the removal of migrants from an Italian island without an individual interview of each migrant.