Human Rights

ECtHR Finds Inspection of Bank Statements Violated Rights

December 07, 2015

The European Court of Human Rights ("ECtHR") held that a Portuguese prosecutor's consultation of a lawyer's bank statements during an investigation for tax fraud violated the lawyer's right to respect for private life under the European Convention on Human Rights.
CoE Criticizes Hungarian Response to Migrants

December 04, 2015

Council of Europe ("CoE") Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks has said that the response of Hungary to the influx of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa "falls short" based on the government's criminalization of undocumented migration and return of many of the migrants to Serbia.
CoE Seeks Increased Scrutiny of Migrant Rights

December 04, 2015

Warning of ill treatment of migrants at border crossings and in migrant camps, Secretary General of the Council of Europe ("CoE") Thorbjørn Jagland has announced that the CoE is examining ways in which it can increase its monitoring of the human rights of migrants and refugees entering CoE member countries.
France Announces Opt-out of ECHR

December 03, 2015

In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris, the French Government has announced to the Council of Europe that it will opt out of some of the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights ("ECHR") during its state of emergency.
ECtHR Upholds French Headscarf Ban in Employment

December 02, 2015

The European Court of Human Rights ("ECtHR") has upheld the application of a French rule banning the wearing of a headscarf at work to a Muslim social worker terminated from her employment at a hospital.
ECtHR Upholds French Hate Speech Fine

November 18, 2015

The European Court of Human Rights ("ECtHR") has rejected a complaint from French comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala that a fine imposed by a French court for anti-Semitic hate speech violated his right to freedom of expression.
EU, Other Institutions Launch "Social Rights" Platform

November 05, 2015

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, the Council of Europe, the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions, and the European Network of Equality Bodies have launched a Collaborative Platform on Social and Economic Rights in order to further such nontraditional "human rights" throughout Europe.
FRA Calls for Rights-Compliant EU Fingerprinting

October 30, 2015

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights ("FRA") has published a checklist for officials in the EU to use when taking the fingerprints of asylum seekers, as mandated by EU rules, in order to respect fundamental rights, including by avoiding "physical or psychological force" in taking the fingerprints.
ECtHR Finds Secret Hearings for Terror Suspects Valid

October 28, 2015

The European Court of Human Rights ("ECtHR") has found that a set of closed court sessions in the UK for three Pakistani students, who had been detained in an anti-terror inquiry for two weeks as courts considered the validity of arrest warrants on national security grounds, did not violate the suspects' human rights.
EU Tribunal Finds Against FRA in Termination Decision

October 21, 2015

POLITICO reports that the EU Civil Service Tribunal has found that the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights ("FRA") was wrong to fire a staff member who had complained of ethnic discrimination in the latest case involving allegations of harassment by FRA management.