Human Rights

ECtHR: Spanish Media Violated Singer's Right to Privacy

February 28, 2017

The European Court of Human Rights has held that the Spanish authorities failed to protect a pop singer's right to respect for her private life by failing to give adequate weight to her claim that the media had "impugned her honour" by broadcasting comments from her former manager on her relationships and sexual orientation.
ECtHR: Russian Removal of Syrian Would Violate Rights

February 23, 2017

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that Russia's removal of a Syrian national to his home country would violate his right to life and that its continued detention of the man for overstaying his visa violates his right to liberty, calling for the country to immediately release the man from detention.
ECtHR: German Inheritance Law Violates Rights

February 21, 2017

The European Court of Human Rights has held that a German law prohibiting a woman from administering her deceased father's estate because she was born out of wedlock before a statutory cut-off point of 1949 had violated the woman's rights against discrimination and to respect for her private and family life.
ECJ Official: States Must Grant Humanitarian Visas

February 17, 2017

Advocate General Paolo Mengozzi of the Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) has concluded that the European Charter of Fundamental Rights requires EU member states to grant visas on humanitarian grounds to applicants from non-EU countries when those applicants are at risk of ill treatment in their country of origin.
CoE Spotlights Compliance with Rights Judgments

February 17, 2017

Increasing pressure on countries in the Council of Europe (CoE) to implement the European human rights agenda, the CoE's Department for the Execution of Judgments has launched a search engine permitting observers to scrutinize the status of governments' execution of judgments from the European Court of Human Rights.
Hungary Plans Break with EU on Migrant Detention

February 17, 2017

Politico reports that, in a move that will stoke tensions with the EU's migrant resettlement policies, the Hungarian Government has announced a plan to retain indefinitely all migrants entering the country in detention facilities, until officials have resolved their immigration status.
EU Committee Seeks "Inclusive" Social Pillar

February 03, 2017

The European Economic and Social Committee has adopted an opinion on the EU's plans for a European Pillar of Social Rights calling for the inclusion in the Pillar of policies promoting "social progress," including in the welfare systems of EU member states.
CoE Official Seeks Abolition of Migrant Detention

February 03, 2017

In a recent comment, the Council of Europe's (CoE) Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks asserts that, given the "serious human rights concerns" involved in preventing migrants' free movement, governments must develop alternatives to detaining migrants that comply with European human rights law.
CoE Body Produces "Big Data" Guidelines

February 03, 2017

The Committee of the Council of Europe's (CoE) Data Protection Convention has issued "Guidelines on Big Data" advising entities processing "big data" to comply with global human rights norms on handling data, including by establishing "ethical committees" to analyze the human rights impacts of data processing.
EU Agency Prioritizes Extensive "Data Rights"

February 03, 2017

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights has published a press release signaling the priority it places on the "data rights" of citizens under European human rights law and its support of new EU data protection rules that will solidify perceived protections like the "right to be forgotten" and the "right of data portability."