Human Rights

Professor: Brexit Could Worsen “Modern Slavery” in UK

April 05, 2017

Professor Andrew Crane of the University of Bath has warned that the decrease in legal immigration to the UK as a result of the country leaving the EU will likely increase demand for trafficked labor and contribute to other exploitive business practices.
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."
CoE Body Issues Standards on Migrant Detention

March 28, 2017

The Council of Europe's (CoE) Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has issued a "factsheet" of Europe-wide standards on acceptable practices in detaining "irregular migrants," stating that the automatic detention of migrants who have broken a country's immigration law violates European human rights provisions.
ECtHR: Enhanced Prison Measures Violated Man's Rights

March 28, 2017

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that Poland violated the rights of a prisoner whom authorities placed in a "dangerous detainee" regime due to his violent behavior toward guards because the regime's strip search and shackling requirements constituted "inhuman or degrading treatment."
ECJ Refines "Right to Be Forgotten" in Business Context

March 24, 2017

The Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) has held that its "right to be forgotten" does not extend to a corporate director who wished to order the removal of information from public records that he was the administrator for a different company that went bankrupt, calling for a "case-by-case" judicial consideration of whether the right applies in specific circumstances.
CoE Committee Criticizes UK’s Treatment of Minorities

March 24, 2017

The Advisory Committee of the Council of Europe’s (CoE) Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, a legally binding international treaty, has released a report criticizing the UK government for failing to fully address discrimination and "hate speech" against national minorities.
ECtHR: Hungary Violated Rights of Asylum Seekers

March 23, 2017

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that Hungarian authorities violated the rights of two Bangladeshi asylum seekers to liberty and security and against inhuman or degrading treatment by detaining them for approximately three weeks and removing them to Serbia without, according to the ECtHR, a proper individual review of their cases.
UK Opposes Lawsuits Using Rights Law on Police Inaction

March 23, 2017

The Telegraph reports that the UK's Home Office has submitted arguments in an ongoing Supreme Court case asserting that the country's Human Rights Act, which incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights in domestic law, does not give plaintiffs the right to seek damages from law enforcement authorities for allegedly botched investigations.