Editor’s note: This post is part of the EJIL:Talk! Symposium on 'Expanding Human Rights Protection to Non-Human Subjects? African, Inter-American and European Perspectives.' As is well known, unlike most other international human rights instruments, the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, to give it its full title, and the Protocols thereto (hereafter, also collectively, “the Convention” or “ECHR”) provides some protection for non-human subjects in the form of “legal persons”. After all, the Convention expressly confirms, in Article 1 of its First Protocol (“Article P1-1”), that “every natural and legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions” and provides, in Article 34, for a right of individual petition to the European Court of Human Right (“the Court”) inter alia for “any … non-governmental organisation … claiming to be a victim of a violation”(as well as for “any person … or group of individuals”). Beyond these two most obvious examples, reference should also be made to the fact that, e.g., Article 10 § 1 expressly refers to “broadcasting, television…
European Court of Human Rights
Page 2 of 62
Anti-war Protest: The Historic Case of Novaya Gazeta and Others v Russia
Born into a Jewish family in Ukraine, Vasily Grossman’s monumental account of totalitarian Stalinist Russia, Life and Fate, which included a remarkable portrayal of the battle of Stalingrad during World War II, was banned by the KGB before it could be published in the Soviet Union. In response, Grossman wrote to the then Soviet leader,…
Context, Content, and the ‘Threshold of Severity’: ECtHR’s Jurisprudence on Satire vs Hate
On 3rd December 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR/Court) delivered its decision in the case of Yevstifeyev and Others v. Russia [App. No. 226 of 2018]. In Yevstifeyev, the ECtHR addressed two distinct applications, wherein the first application involved homophobic verbal assaults and threats against LGBTI activists, which the Court deemed a violation of Article…
Up in Smoke? Victim Status in Environmental Litigation before the ECtHR
While the ripples of Verein KlimaSeniorinnen continue to spread in the academic world, with discussions about potential implications for the future jurisprudence of the ECtHR, on January 30, 2025, the Court handed down another landmark judgment in the field of environmental litigation. The case of Cannavacciuolo and Others v. Italy addressed the systematic and large-scale pollution…
What is the Future of the Prohibition Against Collective Expulsion in the European Human Rights Legal Framework?
On 12 February 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (“the Court”) held hearings in three cases concerning collective expulsions: R.A. and Others v. Poland (42120/21), H.M.M. and Others v. Latvia (42165/21) and C.O.C.G. and Others v. Lithuania (17764/22). These cases included alleged migrant instrumentalisation and hybrid threats orchestrated by Belarus (and Russia) as a…