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Grand Chamber hearing concerning 33 member States
The Court held a Grand Chamber hearing in the case of Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Others.
The case concerns the greenhouse gas emissions from 33 member States, which in the applicants’ view contribute to the phenomenon of global warming resulting, among other things, in heatwaves affecting the applicants’ living conditions and health.
Grand Chamber judgment concerning Türkiye
In the case of Yüksel Yalçınkaya v. Türkiye the Court held that there had been violations of the right to a fair trial, to no punishment without law and to freedom of association.
The case concerned the trial and conviction of the applicant for membership of the FETÖ/PDY. The trial took place in the aftermath of the attempted coup d’état of 15 July 2016.
The problems which had led to findings of violations were systemic in nature. The ECHR held that Türkiye had to take general measures as appropriate to address those systemic problems, notably with regard to the Turkish judiciary’s approach to Bylock evidence. There are currently approximately 8,500 applications on the Court’s docket involving similar complaints under the right to a fair trial and/or to no punishment without law.
Chamber News
In the case of Baret and Caballero v. France, the Court held that there had been no violation of the right to respect for private and family life.
The cases concerned the prohibition on exporting the sperm of the first applicant’s deceased husband and the embryos created by the second applicant with her deceased husband to Spain, a country where posthumous conception was permitted.
The Court held that the domestic authorities had struck a fair balance between the competing interests at stake, that the respondent State had acted within its discretion, and that there had therefore been no violation of the Convention.
In the case of Ainis and Others v. Italy, the Court held that there had been a violation of the right to life.
The case concerned the applicants’ relative who had died from a drug overdose while in police custody in Milan. He had been arrested as part of an anti-drug-trafficking operation. The Italian courts had found no liability on the part of the Ministry of the Interior.
The Court found that the Government had failed to provide convincing arguments or evidence that sufficient steps – such as searches or medical assistance – had been taken to protect the life of the applicant’s relative while in the Milan police headquarters.
In the case of Romanov and Others v. Russia, the Court held that there have been several violations of the Convention.
The case concerned Russia’s alleged failure to protect the applicants, all members of the LGBTI community, from homophobic attacks and to conduct an effective investigation into the incidents.
The Court found that the authorities had failed to take effective measures to prevent the hate-motivated attacks and that the investigating authorities had repeatedly rejected the applicants’ allegations of homophobic motivation behind the attacks, without properly addressing their complaints in that regard. It noted with great concern that this appeared to be common practice in dealing with hate crimes against LGBTI people in Russia.
In the case of Lapunov v. Russia, the Court has found violations of the prohibition of torture, the prohibition of discrimination, and the right to liberty and security.
The case concerned the alleged taking of the applicant – a gay man – from his place of work in Grozny to the local police headquarters, where he had been, along with other men, badly beaten and threatened seriously by police officers because of his sexual orientation. Those allegations were against a background of a reported “purge” of homosexual or presumed homosexual people in the Chechen Republic by the authorities there.
Grand Chamber News
The Court has accepted the referral to the Grand Chamber of the cases Burando Holding B.V. and Port Invest B.V. v. the Netherlands, Janssen de Jong Groep B.V. and Others v. the Netherlands and Ships Waste Oil Collector B.V. v. the Netherlands.
The three cases concern the transmission of data, lawfully obtained in a criminal investigation, to another law-enforcement authority, the Competition Authority, that used those data in an investigation into the applicant companies’ involvement in price-fixing.
The Court has also decided to reject requests to refer 16 other cases.
Hearings
The Court will be holding a Grand Chamber hearing in the case of Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Others on 27 September 2023.
The case concerns the greenhouse gas emissions from 33 member States, which in the applicants’ view contribute to the phenomenon of global warming resulting, among other things, in heatwaves affecting the applicants’ living conditions and health.
Decisions
The Court has ruled on 21 applications against Norway concerning children taken into public care. It declared 12 of the applications inadmissible, while it held in the nine others that there had been violations of the right to respect for private and family life.
The applications restated guiding principles in respect of children taken into public care. Notably, States had wide discretion when deciding on taking a child into care, but the Court had to carry out “stricter scrutiny” of any further measures taken, such as restricting contact rights. In particular, adoption had to be justified by “exceptional circumstances” and the overriding requirement of the child’s best interests.
In the case of Lenis v. Greece, the Court has declared the application inadmissible.
The appplicant was the Metropolitan (equivalent of a bishop) of the Greek Orthodox Church for Kalavryta and Aigialeia. The case concerned his posting a homophobic article on his personal blog in December 2015, when the Greek Parliament had been about to debate proposed legislation introducing civil unions for same-sex couples, and his subsequent prosecution and sentencing for incitement to hatred and discrimination.
The Court found that the applicant was attempting to deflect the freedom of expression of the Convention from its real purpose by using it for ends which were clearly contrary to the values which the Convention sought to promote.
Communication of cases
The Court has communicated to the Government of Hungary the application Karsai v. Hungary and has asked them to submit their observations on its admissibility and merits.
The case concerns the right to a self-determined death of a person affected with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a type of motor neurone disease. Given the nature of the case, the Chamber has decided to grant the application priority under Rule 41 of the Rules of Court.
Other News
On 21 September 2023, President Síofra O’Leary took part in the international conference on The Role of the Judiciary in Execution of Judgements of the European Court of Human Rights, organised in Riga, by the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of the Republic of Latvia, in the framework of Latvia’s Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. President O’Leary delivered a keynote speech on the topic “Execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the Rule of Law”. Mārtiņš Mits, judge elected in respect of Latvia, and Marialena Tsirli, Registrar of the Court, also participated in the conference.
On 20 September 2023 a delegation from the Supreme Court of Sweden, headed by its President, Anders Eka, paid a working visit to the ECHR and was received by Vice-President Marko Bošnjak. During the visit the delegation took part in roundtable discussions with judges of the Court and members of the Registry.
On 19 September 2023, Niyazi Acar, Deputy Minister of Justice of Türkiye, visited the Court and was received by President Síofra O’Leary. Saadet Yüksel, Judge elected in respect of Türkiye, and Abel Campos, Deputy Registrar of the Court, also attended the meeting.