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Chamber hearing concerning Hungary
The Court held a Chamber hearing in the case of Karsai v. Hungary.
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.
Grand Chamber judgment concerning Switzerland
The Court declared the application in the case of Communauté genevoise d’action syndicale (CGAS) v. Switzerland inadmissible.
The case concerned an association which complains of being deprived of the right to organise and participate in public events following the adoption of government measures to tackle COVID-19 under Ordinance O.2 COVID-19, enacted by the Swiss Federal Council on 13 March 2020. On the basis of that ordinance, public and private events were prohibited with effect from 16 March 2020. Failure to comply with the prohibition was punishable by a custodial sentence or a fine.
The Court found that the applicant association had failed to take appropriate steps to enable the national courts to fulfil their fundamental role in the Convention protection system and it stated that an application for a preliminary ruling on constitutionality, lodged in the context of an ordinary appeal against a decision implementing federal ordinances, was a remedy which was directly accessible to litigants and made it possible, where appropriate, to have the impugned provision declared unconstitutional. There had been no particular circumstance which would have released the applicant association from the obligation to exhaust the above remedy.
Chamber News
In the case of Mariya Alekhina and Others v. Russia (no. 2) the Court held that there had been a violation of the freedom of association.
The case concerned the Russian authorities’ refusal to register the applicants’ human-rights organisation which aimed to provide legal assistance to prisoners. The Court found overall that there had been a lack of detailed guidelines on the formal conditions for registering non-profit associations and on the requirements for filling out application forms. The Court therefore found that the alleged deficiencies in the documents provided by the applicants had not been sufficient to deny them registration of their organisation.
In the case of Krachunova v. Bulgaria the Court held that there had been a violation of the prohibition of slavery and forced labour.
The case concerned the applicant’s attempts to obtain compensation for the earnings from sex work that her trafficker had taken from her. The Bulgarian courts had refused compensation, stating she had been engaged in prostitution and returning the earnings from that would be contrary to “good morals”.
The Court held that States had an obligation to enable victims of trafficking to claim compensation for lost earnings from traffickers, and that the Bulgarian authorities had failed to balance the applicant’s right to make such a claim with the interests of the community, who were unlikely to find the payment of compensation in such a situation immoral.
This was the first time that the ECHR had found that a trafficking victim had a right to seek compensation in respect of pecuniary damage from her trafficker.
In the case of Associations of Communally-owned Forestry Proprietors Porceni Pleșa and Piciorul Bătrân Banciu (Obștea de Pădure Porceni Pleșa și Composesoratul Piciorul Bătrân Banciu) v. Romania the Court held that there had been a violation of the protection of property.
The case concerned two associations of forestry proprietors who complained that, in spite of a legally recognised right, they had not received compensation for the fact that they were unable to make use of their forests, since the forests in question had been designated as protected natural areas for the purposes of the European Natura 2000 network.
The Court noted that to date, more than a decade after the European Commission’s decision in favour of granting State aid to individuals or legal entities which owned forestry land within the designated Natura 2000 areas, the draft decision defining the methodology for granting State compensatory measures had still not been published and no payment had been made to the first applicant association in respect of 2013, or to the second applicant association in respect of the period from 2010 to 2014. Although they were subject to the legal ban on using their forests, a result of the classification of the relevant forestry land as protected natural areas, the applicant associations had, at their own expense, complied with the obligation to maintain them.
In the case of Tadić v. Croatia the Court held that there had been no violation of the right to a fair trial.
The case concerned criminal proceedings in which the applicant had been found guilty of conspiring – through payments of money – to influence the Supreme Court to give a decision favourable to a well-known politician who was being tried for a war crime. The Court found that the Supreme Court President’s involvement in the trial against the applicant had not harmed the objective impartiality of that court. He had had very little real influence to impose his will on other judges, and in any case there had been no issue as to how the Supreme Court had upheld the first-instance judgment.
Hearings
The Court will be holding a Chamber hearing in the case of Karsai v. Hungary on 28 November 2023.
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.
Communication of cases
The Court has communicated to the Government of Slovakia the application Fico v. Slovakia and has asked them to submit their observations on its admissibility and merits.
The application concerns the secret monitoring of the applicant’s private meetings, when he was an opposition member of parliament after already having been Prime Minster, in the context of an investigation into what was seen as suspected poaching. The applicant is the leader of a social democratic party SMER and the current Prime Minister of Slovakia.
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.
Decisions
The ECHR has decided to strike out of its list of cases the applications in the case of Bryska v. Ukraine and 5 Others.
None of the application forms included a functioning method of contacting the applicants other than a postal address. Given that it was not possible for the Court to send postal correspondence to Ukraine, and that the applicants had not provided a functioning email address, the Court considered that they no longer wished to pursue their applications.
Grand Chamber News
The Court will be delivering a Grand Chamber ruling in the case of Communauté genevoise d’action syndicale (CGAS) v. Switzerland on 27 November 2023.
The case concerns an association which complains of being deprived of the right to organise and participate in public events following the adoption of government measures to tackle COVID-19 under Ordinance O.2 COVID-19, enacted by the Swiss Federal Council on 13 March 2020. On the basis of that ordinance, public and private events were prohibited with effect from 16 March 2020. Failure to comply with the prohibition was punishable by a custodial sentence or a fine.
The Court has accepted the referral to the Grand Chamber of the case of Semenya v. Switzerland.
The case concerns an international-level athlete, specialising in middle-distance races, who complained about certain regulations of the International Association of Athletics Federations requiring her to take hormone treatment to decrease her natural testosterone level in order to be able to take part in international competitions in the female category. Having refused to undergo the treatment, she was no longer able to take part in international competitions.
The Court has also decided to reject requests to refer thirteen other cases.
Other News
On 16 November 2023 President Síofra O’Leary delivered a speech during her exchange of views with the Gender Equality Commission (GEC) meeting in plenary session in Strasbourg. She was accompanied by Andreas Zünd, Judge elected in respect of Switzerland, Diana Sârcu, Judge elected in respect of the Republic of Moldova, and Kateřina Šimáčková, Judge elected in respect of the Czech Republic.
On 16 November 2023, Angelika Schlunck, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Justice of Germany, visited the Court and was received by President Síofra O’Leary. Anja Seibert-Fohr, Judge elected in respect of Germany, and Abel Campos, Deputy Registrar of the Court, also attended the meeting.
On 14 November 2023 a delegation from the National High Court of Brazil, headed by Justice Herman Benjamin, paid a working visit to the ECHR where it was greeted by President Síofra O’Leary and took part in roundtable discussions with judges of the Court and members of the Registry.