Human Rights

NGO: UK Parties Must Commit to ECtHR

May 25, 2017

Human Rights Watch recently published an article calling on all UK political parties to pledge in their manifestos to keeping the country within the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
ECtHR: Transgender Sterilization Law Violated Rights

May 24, 2017

The New York Times reports that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held a French law requiring people who wish to change the sex listed on their government documents to be sterilized violated the human right to "respect for private and family life."
EU Agency Studies "Citizenship Education" Initiative

May 03, 2017

As part of its project on "strengthening national human rights infrastructures," and in line with the EU's agendas focused on rights to "non-discrimination" and "tolerance," the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights performed a field visit in France to learn about the country's "citizenship education" program.
EC Attempts to Assert Social Role Through Parental Leave

April 26, 2017

As part of European Commission (EC) President Jean-Claude Juncker’s European Pillar of Social Rights initiative designed to demonstrate the EU’s relevance in European social issues, the EC is set to release a “work-life balance proposal” that could significantly increase business obligations toward employees.
CoE Commissioner Criticizes Ireland on Abortion Laws

April 19, 2017

The Council of Europe’s (CoE) Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks has released a report calling on the government of Ireland to significantly expand abortion rights in order to protect human rights and reflect “changing social attitudes” in the country.
CoE Committee Demands French Prison Reform

April 12, 2017

The Council of Europe’s (CoE) Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has issued a report condemning the treatment of inmates at French prisons and calling on the French government to make specific reforms in line with recommendations.
ECtHR Awards Remedy in Absence of Proper Claim

April 05, 2017

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that, in "exceptional circumstances" involving "serious" violations of European human rights law, it can award a remedy to a person it determines is a victim of such a violation even when that person fails to properly make a claim to the body for "just satisfaction."
EU Agency Seeks "Binding" Social Rights Law

April 04, 2017

At a meeting in Malta, Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights asserted that "income inequality" poses a threat to the fundamental rights of Europeans and pushed for the development of an expansive, "legally-binding" European Pillar of Social Rights.to combat "social exclusion" across the EU.
ECtHR: Moscow Airport Confinement Violated Rights

April 03, 2017

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that Russia's confinement of asylum seekers in the transit zone of an airport for periods ranging from five months to two years without access to regular sleeping, bathing, and cooking facilities had "made them feel humiliated and debased" and therefore violated their rights against "inhuman or degrading treatment."
EU, NGOs Create New Plan for "Social Rights"

March 31, 2017

Academics Claire Kilpatrick, Elise Muir, and Sacha Garben outline how EU institutions are consulting with nongovernmental organizations to shape legislation called the European Pillar of Social Rights into "a vehicle for a wide range of proposals on resetting Social Europe" and call for the development of the Pillar to be based on the principle of "social justice."