Chamber judgment concerning Norway
19/11/2019
In the case of K.O. and V.M. v. Norway, the Court has held that the national courts were justified in placing the applicants’ daughter in a foster home a few weeks after her birth. However, the Court found a violation of the right to family life on account of the very limited contact rights granted to the applicants, namely 4 to 6 visits per year.
The baby had been placed in a foster home in 2015 as a result of her parents’ history of drug use, psychological problems and domestic disputes, and was returned to them in 2018.
Grand Chamber
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Relinquishment
20/11/2019The Chamber to which the case of M.A. v. Denmark had been assigned has declined jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber.
The applicant in this case is a Syrian national who arrived in Denmark in January 2015 and was granted a residence permit, extended by one-year periods. He complains about Denmark’s refusal to issue a residence permit to his wife for the purpose of family reunion.
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Forthcoming judgments
14/11/2019
The Court will deliver its Grand Chamber judgments in the cases of Ilias and Ahmed v. Hungary and Z.A. and Others v. Russia on 21 November 2019.
The case of Ilias and Ahmed v. Hungary concerns the detention of two Bangladeshi asylum-seekers in the border zone for 23 days as well as their removal from Hungary to Serbia.
The case of Z.A. and Others v. Russia concerns complaints brought by 4 individuals from Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Somalia and Syria who were travelling via Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport and were denied entry into Russia. They spent between five months and nearly 2 years in the airport’s transit zone.
Webcast of the hearing in the case of Ilias and Ahmed v. Hungary (18/04/2018)
Webcast of the hearing in the case of Z.A. and Others v. Russia (18/04/2018)
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Chamber
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Judgment concerning the Russian Federation
19/11/2019In the case of Obote v. Russia, the Court has found a violation of the right to freedom of assembly on account of the applicant’s prosecution for having taken part in a flash mob in 2009 in front of the Office of the Russian Government, without prior notification.
The Court considered the flash mob a “peaceful assembly” and held that the reasons given by the Russian authorities to justify its dispersal and the applicant’s prosecution had not been “relevant and sufficient”. Seven people standing in silence while holding a blank sheet of paper could not count as a threat to public order.
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Judgment concerning Finland
14/11/2019
In the case of N.A. v. Finland, the Court found that there had been a violation of the right to life and the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment. The applicant had complained of a decision by the Finnish authorities to deport her father to Iraq, where he was shot dead in 2017, shortly after his return.
The Court found in particular that the Finnish authorities had not carried out a thorough enough assessment of the individual risks faced by the applicant’s late father in Iraq although he had already faced two near deadly attacks there in a context of tension between Shia and Sunni groups (the father being a Sunni Muslim).
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Events
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Commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall
12/11/2019
President Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, Mayor of Strasbourg, Roland Ries, and the Permanent Representative of Germany to the Council of Europe, Rolf Mafael, together with the Permanent Representative of France to the Council of Europe, Jean-Baptiste Mattéi, took part in a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 2019. They addressed a gathering of people in front of the 4 slabs of the Berlin Wall that were donated by Germany in 1990 to the Council of Europe and now stand on the forecourt of the Human Rights Building.
Speech by President Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos (in French only)
Video of the speech by President Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos
Video of the speech by the Mayor of Strasbourg, Roland Ries
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Delivered Judgments & Decisions
Forthcoming Judgments & Decisions
21/11/2019