Human Rights

ECtHR Further Delineates Employee Privacy Rights

March 22, 2018

A recent holding of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) that French national railway company SNCF did not violate an employee's right to privacy by secretly searching files not specifically marked "private" on the employee's computer illustrates the growing issue of the propriety of public and private employer surveillance at the ECtHR.
FRA Director Warns of Broad Break with EU Rights Charter

March 06, 2018

In a recent interview, Director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) Michael O'Flaherty criticized the migration policies of EU member states as relying on "too many walls" and warned that many countries were pulling away from the human rights agenda contained in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
NGO Report Pushes for UK "Environmental Justice" After Brexit

March 05, 2018

The Centre for International Governance Innovation has published a report warning that the UK must create a framework for "environmental justice" after it leaves the EU to prevent backsliding on European standards strengthened through the "courageous and imaginative jurisprudence" of the Court of Justice of the EU.
ECtHR: Russia Violated Privacy Rights by Copying Laptop Files

March 05, 2018

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) recently held that Russian customs officers had violated the rights of a photojournalist to respect for private life by copying the contents of his laptop in a search for "extremist" material following his return to the country from the region of Abkhazia.
ECtHR: Conviction for "Insulting" Comments Upheld Speech Rights

February 13, 2018

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has rejected a case in which a lawyer challenged his conviction in Bosnia and Herzegovina for making "insulting expressions towards Serbs" online on the ground that it violated his freedom of expression, finding that the comments had "touched upon the very sensitive matter of ethnic relations in post-conflict Bosnian society."
ECtHR Finds Rights Violation in Expulsion for Terror Conviction

February 06, 2018

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that France violated the right against torture of an Algerian national convicted of involvement in a conspiracy to commit acts of terror by expelling him to Algeria, where the ECtHR found that knowledge of his terror conviction by authorities subjected him to the risk of ill treatment.
CoE Group Identifies Violations of Social, Economic Rights

February 01, 2018

In the group's annual conclusions for 2017, the Council of Europe's (CoE) Committee for Social Rights has identified 175 violations of rights related to "health, social security and social protection," including violations of a "right to protection against poverty and social exclusion."
ECtHR: Fining Company for Biblical Figures in Ads Violated Rights

January 31, 2018

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that penalties imposed by the Lithuanian government on a clothing company for including captions mentioning biblical figures Jesus and Mary in its advertising campaign violated the company's freedom of expression because the ads were not "gratuitously offensive" and "did not incite hatred."
UN Agent Demands EU Response to NGO Rules

January 30, 2018

UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders Michael Forst has called on EU institutions to respond to tightened restrictions on nongovernmental organizations imposed by some member governments by boosting direct EU funding for civil society within the bloc.
ECJ Permits Facebook Privacy Lawsuit to Proceed

January 29, 2018

AP reports that the Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) has permitted an Austrian privacy activist to launch a lawsuit against the Irish subsidiary of tech giant Facebook for the company's alleged violation of EU laws governing his privacy rights, though he cannot initiate a class-action lawsuit based on these claims.