Abstracts Nr 3, 2023

 

Corneliu-Liviu Popescu, La cessation du mandat du juge à la Cour européenne des Droits de l'Homme élu au titre de la Russie

Résumé: Le mandat d'un juge à la Cour européenne des Droits de l'Homme peut prendre fin pour des motifs liée à la personne du juge (expiration de son mandat, révocation, démission, décès) ou comme effet de la cessation de la qualité de Partie à la Convention européenne des droits de l'homme de l'État au titre duquel ledit juge a été élu. La cessation de la qualité de Partie à la Convention de l'État au titre duquel le juge à la Cour a été élu attire de plein droit, sans aucune formalité et avec effet le même jour la cessation du mandat du juge en question. Aucune prolongation ponctuelle du mandat dudit juge, pour continuer à s'occuper des affaires dont il a déjà été saisi, n'est possible.   

Mots clés: Convention européenne des droits de l'homme, partie. Cour européenne des Droits de l'Homme, juge, mandat, cessation, prolongation.

 

Rodoljub Etinski, Liability for Third Party Unlawful Speech in Light of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights

Abstract: The evolution of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the liability of intermediaries for third party unlawful speech in light of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights has been analyzed. The Jersild case from 1994 appears to be overruled by the Sanchez case from 2023. This evolution was instigated less by the emergence of new Internet media and more by social and legal developments. The watershed moment for further evolution may be the issue of whether unlawful speech affects only specific rights, such as the reputation and the right to private life of certain individuals, or if it threatens the fundamental values of the community. Currently, the Court examines this matter through the prism of a balance between two conflicting rights: the right to freedom of expression and the right to protection of private life. It is now time for the Court to consider the balance of interest involving intermediaries, based on Article 10, and the interest of the community in cases related to racial speech, incitement to violence, and similar forms of unlawful speech.

Keywords: liability, media, intermediary, unlawful speech.

 

Torsten Hjelmar, The ECHR and the Human Rights Problem in Mental Health

Abstract: The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is a widely recognized treaty for the protection of human rights adopted in 1950. It continues to be an important foundation for a European identity today. The convention’s section on the right to liberty and security of the person (Article 5) however is based on what today is recognized as outdated and discriminatory viewpoints in that it specifies an exception from the general human rights safeguard for “persons of unsound mind, alcoholics or drug addicts or vagrants”. A study of declassified documents on the drafting process of the ECHR revealed that the exception was formulated by representatives of the United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden, with the British taking on a leading role proposing the text related to persons with mental health problems. These countries had strong eugenic movements at the time of the formulation of the ECHR and had implemented such principles and viewpoints in their legislation and practice. The ECHR drafting committee wrote into the Convention that psychiatric involuntary commitments and deprivation of liberty of an alcohol dependent or a vagrant are in accordance with human rights as long as these are based on national laws. This ECHR article 5, 1(e) in the recent years has become a problem causing an increasing divide between international human rights of the United Nations and the ECHR human rights of Europe. This is a situation that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe over the last year has been addressing through a motion on the Detention of the “socially maladjusted.

Keywords: persons of unsound mind, alcoholics or drug addicts or vagrants, eugenic movements, deprivation of liberty, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

 

Adrian Szelmenczi, Enrolling a child in a Hungarian language kindergarten: Romanian father, Hungarian mother.

Rezumat: In this article I analyze a series of decisions of the courts in Cluj regarding a sensitive and potentially controversial subject: in which language should a child study when the parents (Hungarian mother, Romanian father) disagree? The case lies at the intersection of children's rights and the rights of national minorities. Invoking the principle of the best interests of the child, in all decisions issued so far, the courts have decided that the minor should study exclusively in the Romanian language, arguing that it is beneficial for her development to study primarily the majority language and culture. In my analysis, I question the correctness of the decisions taken by courts because they do not take into account other rights of the child (the right to identity and the right to learn in one's mother tongue) and the Council of Europe's recommendations on linguistic rights. The analyzed judgments are just a few of a long series of decisions of Romanian courts that either ignore the international conventions signed and ratified by Romania or interpret in bad faith the national legislation in a manner unfavorable to national minorities.

Keywords: children's rights, right to education in the mother tongue, kindergarten, language rights, national minorities.