On 29 April 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or the Court) granted part of the applicants’ requests to issue an interim measure in the case of Đorović and Others v. Serbia (App.no. 8904/25). The case involves the alleged use of a sonic weapon for crowd control by the authorities at demonstrations and the concern that it could be used at future demonstrations. In this contribution, I argue that at this point, the decision of the Court to grant interim measures was justified while we wait to see what will be written down in the application and subsequently what decision will be delivered by the Court. Moreover, the contribution discusses the lack of legal basis for the possible use of these kinds of weapons in Serbian legislation and the latest published report from the investigation conducted by the Russian FSB. Context and content of the request for the interim measure For five months and more, students across Serbia have been demanding that the institutions act in accordance…
Human Rights
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Litigating The Maputo Protocol in relation to Conflict-related Sexual Violence Before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights – Two Steps ahead and One Step Back
In a landmark decision adopted in 2024 and disclosed in April 2025 in Communication No. 700/18 dealing with the Minova case v. Democratic Republic of Congo (only available in French), the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (“the Commission”) concluded to the responsibility of the DRC in the grave and massive violations of rights of more…
Critical Minerals, Environmental Harm and the Unspoken Rights of Nature: The Kafue River Spill in Zambia
The global demand for critical minerals has intensified as part of the clean energy transition in line with goals outlined in the Paris Agreement. The environmental costs of extracting and processing these minerals, however, are increasingly borne by mineral-rich but ecologically and socially vulnerable regions. The 2024 Guiding Principles on Critical Energy…
The Rights of Older Persons: A Historic Step Forward
At its 58th session, the Human Rights Council adopted Draft Resolution A/HRC/58/L.24/Rev.1, establishing an open-ended intergovernmental working group tasked with elaborating an international legally binding instrument on the promotion and protection of the human rights of older persons. The Resolution was presented to the Council by a core group of States comprising Argentina, Brazil, the…
Human Rights Protection of Non-Human Subjects from the Perspective of an ECtHR Judge
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…