Human Rights

CoE Chief Consults on EU "Social Rights" Plans

January 25, 2017

In his opinion welcoming the development by EU institutions of a European Pillar of Social Rights, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CoE) Thorbjørn Jagland calls on EU officials to incorporate within this Pillar the CoE's European Social Charter, which seeks to guarantee nontraditional social and economic "human rights" throughout Europe.
ECtHR Finds Faulty Court Interpretation of Criminal Law

January 25, 2017

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that Slovenian courts violated the human rights of a prisoner by failing to properly resolve a legislative mistake in a criminal sentencing law, effectively reducing the prisoner's sentence by ten years, to the advantage of the prisoner.
NGO Criticizes "Shortcomings" in ECtHR Migration Decision

January 23, 2017

Lawyers from the nongovernmental organization Open Society Foundations have criticized a decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) Grand Chamber for "watering down" human rights law as interpreted by a lower judicial body by permitting the removal of migrants from an Italian island without an individual interview of each migrant.
CoE Official Warns Slovenia on Migration Legislation

January 19, 2017

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks has published a letter to the National Assembly of Slovenia warning that legislation currently under consideration in the body that would permit the removal of illegal migrants in the case of threats to the "public order and internal security" violates European human rights law.
ECtHR Upholds UK Policy on Reviewing Life Sentences

January 19, 2017

The European Court of Human Rights has held that, based on a clarifying ruling from the UK Supreme Court setting out "exceptional grounds" on which the British authorities must review life sentences, the UK policy on the review of life sentences is compatible with European human rights law.
ECtHR: Lithuania Violated Prisoner's Right to Access Website

January 19, 2017

The European Court of Human Rights has held that Lithuanian prison authorities violated the human right of a prisoner to receive information by denying him access to a website with educational information due to their fear that prisoners might use internet access to continue their criminal activity.
UK Lawyer: HRA Must Give Way to Focus on Democracy

January 13, 2017

UK attorney Luke Gittos writes that the British Government should repeal the country's Human Rights Act (HRA) to emphasize the need for preservation of freedom through the democratic process rather than glorifying rights "handed down from on high" by unelected judges in the UK and on European courts.
EU Pushes Privacy Rights in Travel Alert System

January 13, 2017

The European Commission has issued a proposal to "strengthen" the Schengen Information System, an information sharing system for border authorities in the passport-free Schengen Area, to more effectively fight terrorism by, in part, bolstering data protection for travelers in line with the "fundamental right" to privacy identified in EU treaties.
UK Policy Shifts Toward Leaving ECtHR

January 04, 2017

The Telegraph reports that sources within UK Prime Minister Theresa May's government have indicated her plans to include in her party's platform for the 2020 general election a pledge to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
ECtHR: Italy Violated Rights of Detained Migrants

January 02, 2017

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that Italy violated the rights to liberty and security of a group of Tunisian migrants the country held on the island of Lampedusa in 2011 and subsequently returned to Tunisia.