Nieuwsbrief Rechtspraak Europa no. 5 - mei 2013 (European Courts' newsletter - Dutch edition)

Klik hier voor onze nieuwsbrief met een overzicht van recente rechtspraak van het Europese Hof voor de Rechten van de Mens in Straatsburg en het Hof van justitie van de Europese Unie in Luxemburg

European Courts' newsletter - English edition - no. 5 (May 2013)

Our newsletter with an overview of recent case law from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxemburg

Free speech, politics and animal rights (comment on ECtHR Animal Defenders International v. the United Kingdom)

By Marc de Werd

On 22 April the European Court of Human Rights in it’s Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Animal Defenders International v. the United Kingdom  held, with the narrowest majority (9-8) possible, that there had been no violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights. (read judgment). 

Russia's anti-gay 'propaganda law' and the European Court of Human Rights

By Paul Johnson - Anniversary Reader in Sociology, University of York, United Kingdom 

Update: New Working Paper on 'Homosexual Propaganda' Laws in the Russian Federation

If you live in the United Kingdom (as I do) the recent introduction of ‘anti-propaganda’ laws in Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere relating to homosexuality will remind you of one thing: section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 which created a ‘prohibition on promoting homosexuality’. Section 28 stated that a local authority ‘shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality’ or ‘promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. Until its repeal (2000 in Scotland, and 2003 in England and Wales) section 28 had the effect of, among other things, limiting the discussion of homosexuality in schools by teachers and preventing local authorities from providing support services to gay and lesbian young people. Section 28 is remembered in the UK, almost universally by those who proposed and opposed it during its existence, as an ineffective and harmful piece of legislation.