A motion for an interlocutory injunction was brought to prevent the City of Toronto from enforcing its By-law that prohibited camping and erecting tents, structures, and shelters in City parks, City of Toronto Municipal Code, c. 608. The applicants did not challenge the validity of the By-law but sought an order to have it suspended …Read more

The applicants appealed a decision affirming the constitutionality of Brian’s Law (Mental Health Legislative Reform), 2000, S.O. 2000, c. 9. (“Brian’s Law”), which was enacted by the Ontario legislature in 2000. Brian’s Law amended the Mental Health Act (“MHA”), adding provisions that expanded criteria for involuntary committal in a psychiatric hospital and introduced community treatment …Read more

The applicants’ claim was based on s. 27(1)(b) of the Constitution – the right to sufficient food and water, which they submitted found further expression in the provisions of the Water Services Act 108 of 1997 (“WSA”). Their complaint argued that farm occupiers and labour tenants, especially the applicants, lacked “access to sufficient water, basic …Read more

The applicant, Mr. Slavko Krajnc, was a professional truck driver in Celje, Slovenia. On September 29, 2003, Krajnc was deemed to have “category III work-related disability” as a result of his epilepsy, which rendered him unable to work as a truck driver. Accordingly, he had the right to be assigned to a different, more suitable …Read more

The applicant suffered from an acute paranoid reaction disorder. She was taken to the Kaunas Psychiatric Hospital by her parents and at their request in 1992; she continued her treatment at another psychiatric hospital. The applicant had joined a religious sect before her first treatment, and her parents stated that she had become disoriented after …Read more

In Austria, a woman was convicted after leading several seminars entitled “Basic Information on Islam” at the right-wing Freedom Party Education Institute, beginning in January 2008.  These seminars were publicly advertised on the Freedom Party’s website, and the leaders of the Freedom Party distributed leaflets specifically aimed to encourage young voters to attend.  An undercover …Read more

CNS International Ministries, Inc. (CNC) and Heartland Christian College (HCC), both nonprofit religious organizations, requested an injunction enjoining the government from enforcing certain provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Both organizations had strong Christian identities and were against abortion, including methods of contraception that they viewed as equivalent to abortion due …Read more

The case concerns the religious exemption and accommodation to the contraceptive mandate under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), which requires health insurance plans to provide coverage for contraception. Plaintiffs were religious organizations who claimed that covering contraception on employee health insurance violated their religious freedom. An exemption from the mandate was available …Read more

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) imposed an obligation on certain employers to provide “‘preventive care and screenings’ for women without ‘any cost sharing requirements.’” Under that law, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) imposed a regulation that the preventive care includes 20 types of contraceptives. Four of those …Read more

The applicant organization is a religious organization. Another organization wrote to the Russian president accusing the applicant organization of extremism and that an inquiry must be ensued into their activities. The letter was forwarded to the Prosecutor’s office and no violation was found. However, the applicant organization was not given access to the filed concerning …Read more

This case deals with the destruction of the Mayan community of Río Negro by a series of massacres perpetrated by the Guatemalan army and members of the civil self-defence patrols in 1980 and 1982 which, according to the IACmHR, included the persecution and elimination of members of the Mayan community, subsequent violations directed against the …Read more

Four out of the five claimants in this case arrived in Libya between February 1998 and February 1999 to work as members of a Bulgarian medical team at Al-Fatah pediatrics hospital; the other claimant had arrived in Libya in 1991 and had been working at a different hospital. On 9 February 1999, the authors together …Read more

The applicants, Mr. Eulalio and Mrs. Ariadna worked as nurses at the Prison of Albacete. The prison had, allegedly, implemented the so-called Syringe Exchange Program (“Program”), a public health program developed by the Penitentiary Health General Sub-Directorate. The experimental Program was launched with the objective of preventing the transmission of diseases between inmates by, among …Read more

On March 26, 2004, the District Court of Moscow upheld a claim to dissolve the religious community of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Moscow (“Community”) and imposed a permanent ban on its activities. The court upheld the claim on various the grounds, which included charges that the Community encouraged its members to commit suicide and/or refused medical …Read more

Mr. Domingo was involved in an accident where he fractured his right femur. The Hospital of Bellvitge, where he was admitted, required patients to consent to a blood transfusion due to the risk of hemorrhage during surgery. Mr. Domingo refused a possible blood transfusion due to his religious beliefs as a Jehovah’s witness. Therefore, Mr. …Read more

A.C., a child and a Jehovah’s Witness, suffered from Crohn’s disease. She had signed an advance medical affidavit containing her instructions not to be given blood under any circumstances. At the age of 14, she was admitted to hospital and refused to consent to the receipt of blood. The Director of Child and Family Services …Read more

The Emberá-Chamí community, which is located on the Río San Juan Embera-Chamí native reservation, practices female genital mutilation. This consists of cutting and cauterizing the clitorises of newborn girls. The practice is customary for this community and appears to have two rationales: first, to prevent infidelity among adolescent girls and women, and second, to prevent, …Read more

Paulina del Carmen Ramírez Jacinto, a minor child, filed a complaint against the United Mexican States for violating her human rights of when she allegedly became pregnant as a result of a rape when she was fourteen years old and was prevented by the state authorities from exercising her right to terminate that pregnancy as …Read more

Six individuals took their case to the European Court of Human Rights against Bosnia and Herzegovina for failing to assist them during their removal to and detention at Guantanamo Bay. Lakhdar Boumediene, Hadj Boudelaa, Mustafa Ait Idir, Mohamed Nechla, Belkacem Bensayah and Saber Lahmar were all detained at Guantanamo Bay on suspicion of having planned …Read more

The petitioner, Rajesh Kumar Srivastava, filed the contempt petition to enforce and to monitor the orders passed by the Supreme Court in D. K. Joshi v. State of U.P., ((2000) 5 SCC 800). In that case the Supreme Court had taken notice of the appalling condition of public health in the State of U.P. and …Read more

The plaintiff filed a suit against the National Institute of Social Services for Retiree [Instituto Nacional de Servicios Sociales para Jubilados y Pensionados] and Prestaciones Médico Asistenciales S.A. [PAMI] for the reimbursement of the surgical procedure the plaintiff had to go through in a Hospital that wasn’t designated by the health insurance company. This occurred because …Read more

The Applicants were four Afghani children who arrived in Australia with their parents as “unlawful non-citizens” (a person who is in the migration zone who is not an Australian citizen and who does not hold a valid visa) according to the Migration Act 1958 (the Act). The family was placed in immigration detention pursuant to …Read more

The Court issued this decision in response to numerous petitions challenging the constitutionality of the sections of the Act CLIV of 1997 on Healthcare pertaining to the treatment of psychiatric patients, especially those with limited disposing capacity. One petitioner objected to the provision of the AH which allowed a therapist to use the assistance of …Read more

This case is a writ position challenging the constitutionality of a law that prohibits anyone with more than two living children from holding certain public offices in the Panchayat raj local government system of the state of Haryana. Note that the Panchayat raj system is the traditional local government system of areas in the Indian …Read more

Applicant, a U.K. national, alleged that English law violated her rights under Articles 2 (right to life), 3 (freedom from torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment), 8 (right to respect for his private and family life) and 9 (right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the European Convention on Human …Read more

The Medical and Dental Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal (“the Tribunal”) brought charges to determine whether a practitioner is guilty of punishable “infamous conduct” when in deference to a patient’s religious views which he failed to provide live-saving blood transfusions, refer the patient to another practitioner, or terminate his medical contract. The patient, Martha Okorie, and her …Read more

Cyprus lodged an application against Turkey for alleged violations of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the “Convention”) which occurred during and after the Turkish military operations in Cyprus in 1974 and the subsequent 1983 establishment of the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (“TRNC”). Cyprus alleged that Turkey was responsible …Read more

Amnesty International and three other international human rights organizations filed a series of four complaints (Communications 48/90, 50/91, 52/91, and 89/93) on behalf of hundreds of prisoners, whom the organizations believed suffered detainment without trial, as well as various forms of torture and cruel and inhuman treatment in prison, following a coup d’état in Sudan …Read more

The petitioners, Salvatori Abuki and Richard Obuga, brought a constitutional challenge against their convictions in a Magistrates’ Court for the practice of witchcraft. (Richard Obuga died before the hearing on the petition began leaving only one petitioner, Abuki.) The petitioner was arrested on a complaint of witchcraft and charged with practicing witchcraft in contravention of …Read more

Kalac (K), a judge advocate and director of legal affairs for the air force, was a practicing Muslim who was permitted to pray five times a day and to perform his other religious duties, such as keeping the fast of Ramadan and attending Friday prayers at the mosque. He was one of three officers and …Read more

The Ontario Government provides funding for both secular public and Roman Catholic separate schools in the province under the Education Act 1990 (Ont), but contributes nothing to the funding of private religious schools. Several parents who, in accordance with their religious beliefs, send their children to private religious schools sought declarations that the Government’s failure …Read more

Members of the World Organization Against Torture filed Communication 25/89 with the African Commission for Human and People’s Rights (‘the Commission’) in March 1989 alleging torture of 15 detained persons by a military unit in the Democratic Republic of Congo (‘the DRC’). The Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights in New York filed Communication 47/90 with …Read more

The appellant parents of a premature baby objected on religious grounds to their child being given a blood transfusion, despite medical opinion that such treatment might be necessary to save the baby’s life. The Provincial Court granted the respondent Society temporary wardship of the baby pursuant to the Child Welfare Act, and a blood transfusion …Read more