Human Rights

Transnational Bodies Push "Social Rights" Agenda

October 26, 2016

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights announced its participation in a meeting of the Joint Collaborative Platform on Social and Economic Rights, a group including the Council of Europe, European Network of National Human Rights Institutions, and the European Network of Equality Bodies pushing for the recognition and monitoring of social and economic rights.
ECtHR: Austria Violated Rights on Bank Scandal Reporting

October 25, 2016

The European Court of Human Rights has found that the Austrian courts violated a newspaper's freedom of expression by upholding a civil claim against it for revealing the name of the manager at a bank, half of whose shares belonged to a state government, subject to criminal proceedings for approving speculative transactions.
ECtHR: Montenegrin Civil Immunity Rule Violates Rights

October 25, 2016

Basing its interpretation of international law on the provisions of a 2004 treaty neither the US nor Montenegro has ratified, the European Court of Human Rights has held that the refusal by Montegrin courts to permit former employees of the US Embassy in the country to sue the US for civil damages over their dismissal violated their human rights.
ECtHR: Insurer's Surveillance Violated Privacy Rights

October 20, 2016

The European Court of Human Rights has held that a Swiss company operating a state insurance scheme violated a woman's right to privacy under European human rights law by conducting surveillance of her activities in public places on four separate dates to prove that she was not as incapacitated as she claimed.
EU Committee Seeks Stronger Social Protection

October 19, 2016

The European Committee on the Regions has adopted an opinion calling on EU institutions to support member states in bolstering their social protection systems and to do more to harmonize "social rights" across the bloc.
CoE Identifies Broad Scope of "Diversity," Minority Rights

October 19, 2016

A report by the Council of Europe identifies the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities as a "living instrument" that, while not identifying what constitutes a "national minority," protects the individual, social, and collective rights of such minorities from interference by states parties.
UK Pledges to Shield Soldiers from ECHR Claims

October 13, 2016

The UK Government has announced that, in future conflicts involving the British military, the country will derogate from the European Convention on Human Rights in order to discourage "vexatious" human rights litigation against soldiers engaged in military operations.
ECtHR: Hungarian Life-Sentence Review Plan Violates Rights

October 13, 2016

The European Court of Human Rights has held that Hungarian legislation mandating automatic review of life sentences for criminals after 40 years, adopted in response to a previous ECtHR decision finding life sentences without the possibility of review a violation of human rights, still constitutes "inhuman or degrading treatment" under European human rights law.
FRA Seeks EU-wide Fundamental Rights Review

October 05, 2016

In remarks indicating that 2015 was "not a good year" for fundamental rights, EU Agency for Fundamental Rights Director Michael O'Flaherty called on all EU members to engage in a comprehensive review of their laws to ensure that they do not conflict with international fundamental rights standards.
FRA Calls for EU "Citizenship Education"

September 21, 2016

In remarks emerging from the agency's Fundamental Rights Forum held earlier this year, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights called for "citizenship education" and schooling on the global human rights agenda in order to promote "inter-cultural dialogue and mutual understanding" among citizens of EU countries.