Tag: Human Rights

Re Alcott (No 2): FD 29 Sep 2016

In an application for a summary order for the return of a child to Australia, the court now considered applications for the release of materials in the media.

Alex Verdan QC
[2016] EWHC 2414 (Fam)
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
See Also – Alcott (No 1) FD 27-Sep-2016
. .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Children, Media, Human Rights

Updated: 23 January 2022; Ref: scu.569860

Vasilescu v Belgium (Legal Summary): ECHR 25 Nov 2014

ECHR Article 46
General measures
Article 46-2
Execution of judgment
Respondent State required to take general measures to improve conditions of detention and to afford appropriate remedies
Article 3
Degrading treatment
Inhuman treatment
Conditions of detention amounting to degrading and inhuman treatment: violation
Facts – The applicant complained before the European Court of the conditions in which he had been detained in various prisons in Belgium.
Law – Article 3: The applicant had been detained in overcrowded prison conditions and sometimes in cells with no toilet facilities or access to running water. He had also had to sleep on a mattress on the floor for several weeks and had been exposed to passive smoking. Accordingly, the applicant’s material conditions of detention in Antwerp and Merksplas prisons, taken as a whole, had reached the minimum threshold of seriousness required by Article 3 of the Convention and amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment.
Conclusion: violation (unanimously).
Article 41: EUR 10,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage; claim in respect of pecuniary damage dismissed.
Article 46: The problems arising from prison overcrowding in Belgium, and the problems of unhygienic and dilapidated prisons, were structural in nature and did not concern the applicant’s personal situation alone. The conditions of detention about which the applicant had complained had been criticised by national and international observers for many years without any improvement apparently having been made in the prisons in which he had been detained. On the contrary, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) had observed in 2012 that the problem of prison overcrowding had continued to worsen in Belgium during recent years. Furthermore, none of the remedies referred to by the Government could at the present time be regarded as an effective remedy that had to be exhausted.
Accordingly, the Court recommended that the respondent State envisage adopting general measures in order to guarantee prisoners conditions of detention compatible with Article 3 of the Convention and also to provide them with a remedy capable of putting a stop to an alleged violation or permitting them to obtain an improvement in their conditions of detention.

64682/12 – Legal Summary, [2014] ECHR 1449
Bailii
European Convention on Human Rights
Human Rights
Cited by:
Legal Summary – Vasilescu v Belgium ECHR 25-Nov-2014
. .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Prisons

Updated: 23 January 2022; Ref: scu.569486

Accession of The European Union to the European Convention for The Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: ECJ 18 Dec 2014

ECJ (Opinion of the full court) Opinion pursuant to Article 218(11) TFEU – Draft international agreement – Accession of the European Union to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms – Compatibility of the draft agreement with the EU and FEU Treaties
Held: ‘The agreement on the accession of the European Union to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is not compatible with Article 6(2) TEU or with Protocol (No 8) relating to Article 6(2) of the Treaty on European Union on the accession of the Union to the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.’

[2014] EUECJ Avis-2/13
Bailii
European Cnvention on Human Rights, TEU 6(2)
Citing:
Advice – Accession Of The European Union To The European Convention For The Protection Of Human Rights And Fundamental Freedoms ECJ 13-Jun-2014
ECJ (View Of Advocate General Kokott) Conclusion of international agreements by the European Union – Accession of the European Union to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

European, Human Rights

Updated: 23 January 2022; Ref: scu.569153

Smith v Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Another: QBD 8 Sep 2016

The claimant had cohabited with the deceased: ‘The claimant seeks a declaration in one of two alternative forms:
i) Pursuant to s.3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 . . that s.1A(2)(a) of the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 . . is to be read as including cohabitees who were living with the deceased in the same household immediately before the date of the death, where they had been living with the deceased in the same household for at least two years before that date, and where they were living during the whole of that period as the husband or wife or civil partner of the deceased; or
ii) Pursuant to s.4 of the HRA that s.1A(2)(a) of the FAA is incompatible with her rights under the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms either under Article 8 or under Articles 8 and 14 taken together.
Held: The claim failed. The sections at issue were not incompatible with eth eclaimant’s human rights.

Edis J
[2016] EWHC 2208 (QB)
Bailii
Fatal Accidents Act 1976 1A(2)(a), Human Rights Act 1998 3, European Conventon of Human Rights
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Ghaidan v Godin-Mendoza HL 21-Jun-2004
Same Sex Partner Entitled to tenancy Succession
The protected tenant had died. His same-sex partner sought a statutory inheritance of the tenancy.
Held: His appeal succeeded. The Fitzpatrick case referred to the position before the 1998 Act: ‘Discriminatory law undermines the rule of law . .
Cited – Wilson v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry; Wilson v First County Trust Ltd (No 2) HL 10-Jul-2003
The respondent appealed against a finding that the provision which made a loan agreement completely invalid for lack of compliance with the 1974 Act was itself invalid under the Human Rights Act since it deprived the respondent of its property . .
Cited – Office of Government Commerce v Information Commissioner Admn 11-Apr-2008
Statutory appeal by the Office of Government Commerce (the OGC) against two decisions of the Information Tribunal relating to gateway reviews carried out by the OGC of the Government’s identity card programme. . .
Cited – McLoughlin v O’Brian HL 6-May-1982
The plaintiff was the mother of a child who died in an horrific accident, in which her husband and two other children were also injured. She was at home at the time of the accident, but went to the hospital immediately when she had heard what had . .
Cited – Alcock and Others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police HL 28-Nov-1991
The plaintiffs sought damages for nervous shock. They had watched on television, as their relatives and friends, 96 in all, died at a football match, for the safety of which the defendants were responsible. The defendant police service had not . .
Cited – Wilkinson v Kitzinger and others FD 31-Jul-2006
The parties had gone through a ceremony of marriage in Columbia, being both women. After the relationship failed, the claimant sought a declaration that the witholding of the recognition of same-sex marriages recoginised in a foreign jurisdiction . .
Cited – Office of Government Commerce v Information Commissioner and Another Admn 11-Apr-2008
The Office appealed against decisions ordering it to release information about the gateway reviews for the proposed identity card system, claiming a qualified exemption from disclosure under the 2000 Act.
Held: The decision was set aside for . .
Cited – Swift v Secretary of State for Justice CA 18-Mar-2013
The claimant appealed against refusal of a declaration that the 1976 Act infringed her human rights. She had been cohabiting for six months, when her partner was killed in an accident at work for which a third party was liable. Because she had not . .
Cited – Swift v Secretary of State for Justice QBD 18-Jul-2012
The Court considered a dependency claim by a person who had cohabited with the deceased for 6 months prior to death. The claim was for a declaration of incompatibility in relation to the 2 year + cohabitee provision in s.1 of the FAA which, the . .
Cited – Bank Mellat v Her Majesty’s Treasury (No 2) SC 19-Jun-2013
The bank challenged measures taken by HM Treasury to restrict access to the United Kingdom’s financial markets by a major Iranian commercial bank, Bank Mellat, on the account of its alleged connection with Iran’s nuclear weapons and ballistic . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Damages

Updated: 22 January 2022; Ref: scu.569085

Petruhhin (Advocate Generals Opinion): ECJ 10 May 2016

Opinion – Request for a preliminary ruling – Citizenship of the European Union – First paragraph of Article 18 TFEU and Article 21(1) TFEU – Request for the extradition to Russia of a national of one Member State present on the territory of another Member State – Refusal of a Member State to extradite its own nationals – Difference in treatment on the ground of nationality – Whether justified – Combating impunity – Verification of the guarantees provided for in Article 19(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union

Bot AG
C-182/15, [2016] EUECJ C-182/15 – O, [2016] EUECJ C-182/15
Bailii, Bailii
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union 19(2)

European, Human Rights

Updated: 22 January 2022; Ref: scu.569007