Human Rights

CoE Criticizes Dutch Treatment of Migrants

October 17, 2014

The Council of Europe ("CoE") Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed concern over potential human rights violations related to the administrative detention of asylum seekers and criminal prosecution of children in The Netherlands.
CoE Calls for Protection of Socio-Economic Rights

October 15, 2014

The Council of Europe ("CoE") Commissioner for Human Rights has called for states to balance fiscal restraint against the recognition of "socio-economic rights" across Europe.
Senior U.K. Judge Considers Arguments for Written Constitution

October 15, 2014

In a recent speech, President of the U.K. Supreme Court Lord Neuberger considered the arguments for and against a written British constitution, stating that such a document might take the place of the current "semi-constitution" of the European Convention on Human Rights.
FRA: EU Must Include Human Rights in Security Strategy

October 08, 2014

In recognition of human rights issues such as those raised by mass digital surveillance, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights ("FRA") has called on the EU to integrate provisions on human rights in the "internal security strategy" currently considered by officials in the bloc.
Telegraph Praises Tory Plan for Human Rights Reform

October 08, 2014

An editorial in The Telegraph applauds U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and his Conservative Government for plans to replace the country's Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities in response to the transformation of the European Convention on Human Rights "into a weapon of judicial activism."
U.K. Conservatives Announce Plans for Bill of Rights

October 03, 2014

The British Conservative Party has released a strategy document outlining how, by repealing the U.K. Human Rights Act and replacing it with a British Bill of Rights, the party would restore sovereignty to the U.K. Parliament and supremacy to the U.K. Supreme Court.
Lord Judge: ECHR Cannot Override Parliamentary Supremacy

October 02, 2014

Recently retired Lord Chief Justice Judge writes that "it would be a negation of the democratic process" if the European Court of Human Rights ("ECHR"), as a group of unelected judges, had authority to override British sovereignty by binding the U.K. Parliament to act.
ECHR Refuses Deportation Due to Risk of "Life-Without-Parole" Sentence

September 10, 2014

The European Court of Human Rights ("ECHR") has declared that Belgium's deportation of a terror suspect to the U.S. would violate his human rights because the U.S. could impose upon the suspect a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of release.
Irish Justice Expresses Subsidiarity Concerns over ECHR

September 10, 2014

Irish Supreme Court Justice Adrian Hardiman has questioned whether the European Court of Human Rights ("ECHR") has ignored the principle of subsidiarity by hearing a case when domestic remedies had not yet been exhausted.
NGO Challenges U.K. for Secrecy in Intelligence Sharing

September 10, 2014

The nongovernmental organization ("NGO") Privacy International has taken the U.K. to the European Court of Human Rights over the country's refusal to publish the "Five Eyes" intelligence-sharing treaty.