Category: ECHR

ECHR Guarantee Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides that No one shall be held in slavery or servitude No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour. For the purpose of the article, the term forced or compulsory labour shall not include. any work required to be done in […]

Article 5 Protection On many occasions, the European Court of Human Rights has emphasised the importance of Article 5, protection of personal liberty. The court stresses the fundamental importance of the guarantees contained in Article 5 for securing the rights of individuals in a democracy to be free from arbitrary detention at the hands of […]

ECHR Article 9 Article 9 provides: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance. . Freedom […]

Limits to Rights In El Majjaoui v. Netherlands, the applicant was a mosque in the respondent country serving Moroccans. They failed to secure a work permit from an imam recruited from abroad. The Grand Chamber rejected the claim. It held that foreign nationals do not have a right to obtain residence and a permit for […]

Protection of  Possessions The European Court of  Human Rights has held on numerous occasions that the Article has three elements. Everyone is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions. Deprivation of possession is subject to certain conditions. Contracting parties are entitled to control the use of property where it is in the general interest. […]

Historcial Expropriation In a series of cases involving claims in Central and Eastern Europe arising from post-war adjustment of boundaries, appropriation and movement of peoples, the court held that pre-Convention expropriations were not covered by the Convention. The former property right must be sufficiently established. Where there is a procedure for recognition in national law […]

Movement The fourth and seventh Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights deal with freedom of movement and the right to choose a residence in the broadest sense. Article 3 of the Protocol prohibits the deportation of nationals and confirms the right of nationals to enter their own country. Article 4 prohibits the collective […]

Family and Private Life Article 8 of the European Convention provides that everyone has the right to respect for his family and private life, his home and his correspondence. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with law and is necessary […]

Political Speech In Castells v. Spain, the court indicated “the limits of permissible criticism are wider with regard to the government than in a relation to a private citizen or even a politician. In a democratic society, the actions or omissions of the government must be subject to close scrutiny not only of the legislative […]

ECHR Guarantee Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides that everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions, and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This Article shall not prevent states from requiring the […]

Adoption The European Court has held that there is no Convention right to adopt a child. In Pini v. Romania, Italian parents had agreed to adopt Romanian children placed for adoption after abandonment by their parents. There had been little contact with the adoptive parents. Adoption orders were made and later overturned in the Romanian […]