Human Rights

Wedding Cake Case Referred to European Court of Human Rights

August 16, 2019

A case involving a Christian bakery, which refused to make a cake with a slogan supporting same-sex marriage, has been referred to the European Court of Human Rights.
Armenian Court Seeks ECtHR Opinion on Criminal Law

August 09, 2019

In the second-ever use of the new procedure, the Constitutional Court of Armenia is seeking an advisory opinion from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) regarding the compliance of a national criminal provision prohibiting the overthrow of the constitutional order with European human rights law.
EU Rights Body Warns of “Tough Line” on Migration

August 01, 2019

In its quarterly report on migration rights, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights expresses concerns about the rights impacts of the “tough line” some EU member states are taking on migrants, including by removing them without prior notice and the criminalization by Italy of sea rescues of migrant ships.
ECtHR Sets Standards on Right to Remain Silent

July 17, 2019

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held French police officers violated a criminal suspect’s right to a fair trial by not informing him of his right to remain silent and by restricting his access to an attorney following his arrest.
ECtHR: Belgium Failed to Properly Review Spanish Arrest Warrant

July 17, 2019

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that Belgian courts failed to properly scrutinize the risks of a human rights violation in deciding to reject a European arrest warrant from Spain seeking the surrender of a murder suspect.
ECJ Permits Lithuania to Make TV Station Pay-per-View

July 17, 2019

The Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) has upheld a decision by Lithuanian authorities to require broadcasters to charge customers a fee to watch a Russian-language television station due to that station’s broadcast of material that constitutes “incitement to hostility to and hatred of the Baltic States on grounds of nationality.”
ECtHR: Drunk-Driving Test with Catheter Violated Rights

July 02, 2019

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that Hungarian police officers’ use of a catheter to extract and test urine of a man suspected of driving while intoxicated - arguably without his consent and after the officers had taken his blood sample - violated the man’s right against inhuman or degrading treatment.
ECtHR: Continuous Surveillance Violated Russian Prisoners’ Rights

July 02, 2019

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that permanent video surveillance by Russian prisons of various prisoners in their cells without any procedural limits on prison authorities violated the prisoners’ right to “respect for private life.”
CoE Readmittance of Russia Splits Rights Activists

June 27, 2019

Deutsche Welle reports on the debate among human rights activists over the merits of the decision to restore Russian voting rights at the Council of Europe (CoE), with supporters hailing the move as a way to continue holding Russia accountable for rights violations and critics pointing to the CoE’s lack of influence over the Kremlin.
Observers Fault CoE Body for Concession to Russia

June 26, 2019

Aaron Rhodes and Willy Fautré write that the decision of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (CoE) to readmit Russia in spite of the failure of the Russian government to withdraw from Ukrainian territory sacrifices human rights “on the altar of a geopolitical agenda.”