This week in Strasbourg - A roundup of the European Court of Human Rights' case law - 2014 week 5

O’Keeffe accepts Taoiseach’s apology and says ‘please act’ (The Irish Times) - "Louise O’Keeffe has accepted an apology made by Taoiseach Enda Kenny for the abuse she experienced as a schoogirl, and has called on the Government to act quickly to protect other victims like her. Ms O’Keeffe won a landmark legal challenge against the State this week after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Government failed to protect her from sexual abuse she suffered in school in Cork."

Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) - In the case of O’Keeffe v. Ireland (Grand Chamber judgment) the Court held that the structure of primary education in Ireland in the 1970s failed to protect the applicant (a schoolgirl) from sexual abuse by her teacher. The case concerned the question of the responsibility of the State for the sexual abuse of a schoolgirl, aged nine, by a lay teacher in an Irish National School in 1973. The Court found that it was an inherent obligation of a Government to protect children from ill-treatment, especially in a primary education context.   That obligation had not been met when the Irish State, which had to have been aware of the sexual abuse of children by adults prior to the 1970s through, among other things, its prosecution of such crimes at a significant rate, nevertheless continued to entrust the management of the primary education of the vast majority of young Irish children to National Schools, without putting in place any mechanism of effective State control against the risks of such abuse occurring:

This week in Strasbourg - A roundup of the European Court of Human Rights' case law - 2014 week 4

"January" (detail) from Les Tres Riches Heures

  
Texts build on the press releases of the European Court of Human Rights. 
This selection covers categories 1 and 2 judgments. 

Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) In the case of Placì v. Italy the Court found violations of Articles 3 and 6. The case concerned the applicant’s conscription into compulsory military service despite his fragile state of mental health.  Mr Placì complained in particular under Article 3 of the Convention of a lack of a proper assessment of his state of health before conscription and about his conscription into military service with the resulting training he had had to undergo and punishments that had been inflicted on him.

Our best read blog posts in 2013

1. Free speech, politics and animal rights 

Probably our best read piece because our dog Frits is featuring (Frits says hi to all of you). The post elaborates on the ECtHR's Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Animal Defenders International v. the United Kingdom and concerns the (non) possibility to advertise on TV or radio.

Nederland en zijn Nationaal Actieplan Mensenrechten (The Netherlands Human Rights Action Plan - in Dutch)

Paul van Sasse van Ysselt[1]

Inleiding

Op 10 december 2013 – wereldwijd de Dag van de Rechten van de Mens – was het 65 jaar geleden dat de Universele Verklaring voor de Rechten van de Mens werd aangenomen door de Algemene Vergadering van de Verenigde Naties. Op die dag presenteerde de Minister van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties het Nationaal Actieplan Mensenrechten, dat op diezelfde dag naar de Tweede Kamer is gezonden.[2] 

This week in Strasbourg - A roundup of the European Court of Human Rights' case law - 2014 week 3

"January" (detail) from Les Tres Riches Heures

Texts build on the press releases of the European Court of Human Rights. 
This selection covers categories 1 and 2 judgments. 

Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of property) - Real estate company’s complaint about restrictions on use of protected coastal territory declared inadmissible

In its decision in the case of Crash 2000 OOD and Others v. Bulgaria the Court declared the application inadmissible. The case concerned the complaint by a real estate company and 70 of its clients about an alleged breach of their right to use property – declared as protected territory as a result of a 1995 ministerial order – which the company bought for investment purposes in 2005. Due to restrictions on the use of the land, construction permits obtained by the company were declared insufficient to establish a valid and lawful right to construction and were eventually annulled. The applicants also complained of an alleged breach of their right of access to a court.

This week in Strasbourg - A roundup of the European Court of Human Rights' case law - 2014 weeks 1-2

 

Medieval Family Tree 

 Texts build on the press releases of the European Court of Human Rights. 
This selection covers categories 1 and 2 judgments.

Article 8 (right to respect for private and family)

Transmission of the father’s surname reflects discrimination based on the parents’ sex 

In the case of Cusan and Fazzo v. Italy the European Court of Human Rights held, by a majority, that there had been a violation of Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights, taken together with Article 8 (right to respect for private and family) of the Convention. The case concerned a challenge to transmission of the father’s surname to his children. The Court held that the decision to name a child based on transmission of the father’s surname was based solely on discrimination on the ground of the parents’ sex, and was incompatible with the principle of non-discrimination:

Nieuwsbrief Rechtspraak Europa no. 1 - januari 2014 (European Courts' newsletter in Dutch)

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