Human Rights

ECJ Requires Mental-Health Exceptions to Returns

June 04, 2018

The Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) recently held that EU law requires a member state not to return a person to his home country if it determines he could be intentionally deprived of mental health services, and that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights prohibits countries from returning a person who would as a result suffer a deterioration in his mental health disorders.
CoE Body Seeks Improved Complaints Systems for "Torture"

June 01, 2018

In its recently released annual report, the Council of Europe's (CoE) Committee for the Prevention of Torture criticized CoE member states for failing to provide "effective" complaints mechanisms offering redress, including compensation, for prisoners and others in state custody alleging that they have been subjected to torture or other "inhuman" or "degrading" treatment.
EC Proposes Rules to Aid Corporate Whistleblowers

May 31, 2018

The Guardian reports on a European Commission (EC) proposal to harmonize corporate whistleblower standards across the EU in legislation that would create a special legal status for such whistleblowers and grant them access to legal aid and financial support to encourage them to expose unlawful business conduct.
UK Peers Seek to Retain EU Rights Charter After Brexit

May 31, 2018

The BBC reports that the UK House of Lords recently voted to amend the government's EU withdrawal bill to require the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which only applies when a country is implementing EU law, to remain in force in Britain after the country leaves the EU.
ECtHR Finds Right to Be Informed of Family Member's Death

May 31, 2018

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that Russian authorities violated a couple's right to respect for private and family life by failing to make "reasonable efforts" to locate them and inform them that their son had been murdered.
ECtHR: Slovenia Violated Privacy Rights Through IP Address Request

May 31, 2018

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) recently held that Slovenian police had violated the privacy rights of a man convicted of downloading child pornography by requesting and receiving information about the man, who was using a dynamic IP address to transfer the relevant files, from a local internet service provider without first obtaining a court order.
CoE Entity Updates Standards for "Equality Bodies"

May 30, 2018

The Council of Europe's (CoE) Commission Against Racism and Intolerance has released a set of revised standards explaining how CoE member states should establish independent "equality bodies" that make proposals for anti-discrimination legislation and pursue litigation on behalf of alleged victims of discrimination.
NGO Pushes for EU Financial Support Through "Values Instrument"

May 23, 2018

Jan Jakub Chromiec and Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz of the Polish nongovernmental organization the Stefan Batory Foundation write that the proposal by multiple EU institutions of a "European Values Instrument" needs to include substantial financial support for favored NGOs within the EU to help "renew the Union as a values-based community."
EU Data-Protection Rules Aim for Global Standard-Setting

May 22, 2018

An article by Emily Stewart of Vox examines the global reach of the EU's new data-protection regime, which enters into force this week and whose strict standards purport to control the activities of many major American tech companies that engage in transactions with European users.
EU Data-Protection Group Studies Social Media Policies

May 21, 2018

The Working Party 29, an association of national data-protection authorities in Europe, has announced its creation of a Social Media Working Group to develop a long-term strategy on how authorities should respond to the collection and misuse of personal data by tech companies.