Eleven November is a date noted throughout the Western world as a symbol for the end of conflict and reverence for sacrifice. In an increasingly secular world, the power of that symbol as something transcendental has waned. Human rights protections, driven by notions of human dignity, have also been born of war and atrocities that one wishes were unimaginable, yet that somehow were not only imagined but executed by real people against other real people, too often ... more

Mouvement Raëlien Suisse v. Switzerland (no. 16354/06) — Grand Chamber hearing scheduled for 16 November 2011.

Herrmann v. Germany (no. 9300/07) — Grand Chamber hearing scheduled for 30 November 2011.

S.H. and Others v. Austria (no. 57813/00) — Grand Chamber Judgment 3 November 2011.  This case concerns a complaint lodged with the Austrian Constitutional Court in 1998 by two married couples, Austrian nationals, protesting the Austrian ban on medically-assisted procreation techniques. Suffering from infertility, the couples ... more

Dimitras and Others v. France No. 2 (nos. 34207/08 and 6365/09) - Chamber Judgment 3 November 2011 (in French only).  The applicants, Mr Panayote Dimitras, Mr Grigoris Vallianatos, and Mrs Nafsika Papanikolatou, are Greek nationals. They are statutory representatives of the International Helsinki Foundation, a non-governmental organisation working for the defence of human rights. In that capacity they took part in a number of criminal cases as witnesses. At each hearing ... more

As part of our attempt to make the Strasbourg Consortium Case Table a definitive resource, we invite submission of documents — such as opinions below, third-party interventions, and applications to the Court — that are not otherwise easily available to us. We would be pleased to receive such documents, in MS Word or PDF format, sent directly to the editor at [email protected].

Please click here to review current and past news items and opinion pieces concerning Council of Europe member states. Note that opinions expressed in the articles, or biases reflected in news items, do not necessarily reflect opinions or attitudes of members of the Strasbourg Consortium. We strive for balance in presenting issues of potential interest to our readers.

The new President of the European Court of Human Rights, Sir Nicolas Bratza, who was elected in July 2011, took up his duties on 4 November 2011. He is the third British President in the history of the Court, following Lord McNair, who served as President of the Court from 1959 till 1965, and Sir Humphrey Waldock, who served from 1971 till 1974. 

Sir Nicolas replaces Jean-Paul Costa (French), who has been the Court’s President since 19 January 2007. Having turned 70 years old on 3 November 2011, Mr. Costa was required by Article 23 § 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights ... more

The European Court of Human Rights has elected a new Vice-President – Josep Casadevall (Andorra) – and elected a new Section President – Lech Garlicki (Poland). Both will assume their three-year terms on November 4, 2011. Judge Casadevall, who has served as President of Section since February 2008, has been a Judge of the Court since November 1998. Judge Garlicki has served on the Court since June 2002. The Court is composed of one judge in respect of each of the 47 States to have ratified the European Convention ... more

14 October 2011. NSS publish European Court of Human Rights intervention. (Keith Porteus Wood, National Secular Society)

11 October 2011. Wrong to penalise Christian registrar, consultation finds. (The Christian Institute)

28 September 2011.  Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) submits intervention to ECtHR on religious discrimination in the workplace.  (wired-gov.net)  [EHRC Consultation Response Summary] [EHRC Submission to ECtHR] ... more

International experts will gather at Balliol College, Oxford on 24 November 2011 to discuss New Frontiers of Protection of Freedom of Religion or Belief under International Law - 30 Years after the 1981 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. The Oxford Conference on Law and Religion will feature Heiner Bielefeldt (UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of or Belief), Malcolm Evans (University of Bristol), Christopher McCrudden (University of Oxford and Queen’s University Belfast), Nazila Granea (University of Oxford), Michael Wiener (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights), and Ronan McCrea ... more

More political leadership and media engagement are needed to confront anti-Muslim rhetoric, said participants in an OSCE high-level meeting held in Vienna on 28 October 2011. OSCE participating States' governments and other key actors must challenge intolerant public discourse against Muslims, while preserving freedom of expression. The conference organized by Lithuania's 2011 OSCE Chairmanship and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions ... more

Representatives of the OSCE’s 56 participating States met in Rome on 12 September to discuss ways to prevent and respond to hate crimes against Christians. The meeting, organized by the OSCE’s Lithuanian Chairmanship and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), aims at raising awareness on hate-motivated crimes and incidents targeting Christians and their property across the OSCE region. Participants also shared good practices ... more

The International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS) held its Second Conference, Religion and Constitution, in Santiago, Chile, 8-10 September 2011. The conference addressed such issues as the role for religions in contemporary society, how much States are prepared to accept the growing relevance of religions in their legal systems, whether constitutions provide adequate instruments to govern the role of religions in the public square, and the religion and equal treatment in China and Nepal. The conference was opened by ... more

Human Rights Without Frontiers announces the release of the report "EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA): A Reality Check." In addition to being available here, the full 72-page report is available at the HWRF website and also as the 9 November 2011 entry of the blog Religious Freedom ... more

The European Court of Human Rights has compiled two series of factsheets providing information about its case law, including pending cases. A series of "country profiles" provides wide-ranging State-specific information for each the forty-seven European countries that have ratified the European Convention on Human Rights, touching upon the human rights issues dealt with by the Court for each State. A compilation of "Stastistics on judgments by State" is also available, offering charts showing the subject matter of judgments for each State. In addition, a series thematic factsheets summarizes the Court's case work by topic. It is hoped that these resources will help make the Court's work and case-law better known and more accessible.

Oxford University Press has announced a new publication, The Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, with its first issue to appear in early 2012. Five internationally renowned scholars will serve as Editors-in-Chief: W. Cole Durham, Brigham Young University (USA); Malcolm Evans, University of Bristol (UK); Silvio Ferrari, Università degli Studi di Milano (Italy); Julian Rivers, University of Bristol (UK); and Gerhard Robbers, Universität Trier (Germany). Managing Editor is Peter Petkoff, of Brunel Law School, London, and Regent's Park College, University of Oxford (UK). Case Note Editors are Jessica Giles (Oxford), Cristiana Cianitto ... more

Human rights constitute a journey and a work-in-progress, as much for the Union itself, as for its partners around the world.

This EU Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World  [4 MB]   tells the story of that journey in 2010.  It charts the EU's human rights work in its relations with other countries, both in its formal dialogues and in its practical, direct assistance.  It also reviews the Union's work in multilateral forums, especially ... more

Summer Harvest of Academic Articles and ECHR Articles in the News HRLR (lists by Antoine Buyse, ECHR Blog)

Elena Miroshnikova, The Cooperation Model in State-Church Relations, Lambert 2011

Antoine Buyse & Michael Hamilton, eds., Transitional Jurisprudence and the ECHR: Justice, Politics and Rights, Cambridge University Press 2011

Jonas Christoffersen & Mikael Rask Madsen, eds., The European Court of Human Rights between Law and Politics, Oxford ... more