Human Rights

CoE Official: SDGs Lay out Human Rights Agenda for Europe

October 16, 2015

The Council of Europe ("CoE") Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks has called on European governments to apply the UN Sustainable Development Goals ("SDGs") to advance the international economic and social rights agenda within Europe.
FRA Pushes Alternatives to Asylum-Seeker Detention

October 15, 2015

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights ("FRA") has published guidance to EU member countries on alternatives to detaining asylum seekers and people who have sought and failed to obtain asylum within their territory.
CoE Assembly Calls for Reduction of Income Inequality

October 08, 2015

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe ("CoE"), whose mission is to uphold "human rights, democracy and the rule of law" in Europe, has called for countries to do more, including through easing collective bargaining and raising the minimum wage, to decrease income inequality among their citizens.
EU Prisoner Vote Ruling May Influence "Brexit" Debate

October 07, 2015

The Telegraph reports that a recent ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU that countries can ban prisoners convicted of "serious crimes" from voting in EU elections gives British prisoners convicted of minor crimes a basis on which to challenge the UK's blanket ban on prisoner voting and thus may strengthen the campaign within the country for EU exit.
ECtHR Launches Information Exchange with National Courts

October 07, 2015

As the European Court of Human Rights ("ECtHR") seeks ways to institutionalize its case law in national courts, ECtHR President Dean Spielmann has announced the launch of a system that will facilitate the exchange of such information between the ECtHR and national superior courts.
Academic: UK Criminal Courts Charge Conflicts with ECHR

September 28, 2015

In a recent interview, Professor Mike Hough of Birkbeck School of Law argued that a fee charged in the UK to defendants found guilty in criminal cases violates the provision of the European Convention on Human Rights ("ECHR") guaranteeing the right to a fair trial by encouraging defendants to plead guilty.
ECtHR: Sharia Law Incompatible with Democracy

September 22, 2015

In the context of the recent debate regarding the compatibility of Sharia law with democracy, in 2003, in the case of Refah Partisi v. Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights ("ECtHR") determined that the establishment of sharia law by a political party would be incompatible with democracy and upheld Turkey's dissolution of a political party advocating sharia law.
Judge: UK Could Uphold Rights Under Alternative to ECHR

September 22, 2015

In a recent interview, UK Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Sumption said that the UK's adoption of an alternative approach to the European Convention on Human Rights ("ECHR") - for instance, through a British Bill of Rights - would not undermine human rights protections of British citizens.
Attorney General: UK Considers Departing ECtHR

September 16, 2015

Calling the status quo of Britain's relationship with the European Court of Human Rights ("ECtHR") "not sustainable" due to the Court's controversial rulings, UK Attorney General Jeremy Wright has indicated that the current British government could decide to pull out of the ECtHR.
ECtHR: Italy's Detention of Migrants Violated Human Rights

September 02, 2015

The European Court of Human Rights ("ECtHR") has ruled that the Italian government violated the rights of a group of Tunisian migrants, during an influx of migrants from Africa and the Middle East, by holding them in what the ECtHR considered to be "degrading" conditions on the island of Lampedusa pending their expulsion.