Human Rights

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.
EC Seeks to Mandate Biometric ID Cards

May 18, 2018

Reuters reports that the European Commission (EC) has issued a proposal that would require national governments to include their citizens' fingerprints on the identification cards they issue, as a measure aimed at preventing terrorism and transnational crime in the EU.
UK Judge Defines Businessman's "Right to Be Forgotten"

May 18, 2018

The Guardian reports that a British judge recently ordered Google, under EU law, to remove information about the conviction of a businessman in the 1990s for conspiracy to intercept communications, finding the tech giant must respect his "right to be forgotten" because he had shown remorse for his actions and was unlikely to repeat the crime.
Experts Deride EU Plans for "Electronic Person" Status

May 16, 2018

A group of experts has published a letter to the European Commission characterizing the body's plans, under pressure from a European Parliament report, to publish a proposal establishing a new legal status of "electronic persons" as "ideological and nonsensical and non-pragmatic" and as a breach of human rights law.
CoE Body: Europe Must Coordinate Approach to Migrants

May 10, 2018

In a recent report on the status of Italy's efforts in rescuing and supporting migrants arriving via the Mediterranean Sea, the Council of Europe's (CoE) Committee for the Prevention of Torture asserts that there is a human rights-based "need for a co-ordinated European approach and support system to address the phenomenon of mass migratory arrivals."