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 plaintiff stated that the Butabika Hospital is the only public psychiatric hospital under the Ministry of Health in Uganda. Further it is the only mental referral hospital and cases referred to it by other health facilities are of acute conditions, which require a specialized and skilled management. A part of the procedure in the …Read more

The plaintiff Urgenda, a foundation committed to a more sustainable society, brought a claim on behalf of over 800 individuals against the defendant, the state of the Netherlands, regarding climate change. Specifically, the plaintiff asked the court to rule that it would be unlawful for the defendant not to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by …Read more

The National Environment Management Authority (“NEMA”) demolished the petitioner’s house after serving notice that his residential property was in a wetland. He filed a Constitutional Petition in the Constitutional Court maintaining that his rights over his property and his right to a hearing and to an appeal had been violated. He claimed that Sections 67, …Read more

The plaintiff, the leader of the Toba indigenous community – Félix Díaz –  filed a suit with the Supreme Court of Justice (by original jurisdiction) against the province of Formosa for breaching a precautionary measure and to order the cessation of the construction of an Hospital. The precautionary measure prohibited the Province of Formosa to build …Read more

Traube, the applicant is a German national owning and operating a farm located in Salzgitter-Bleckenstedt. In 1991, a plan-approved procedure was opened for the transformation of an iron ore mine near the applicant’s farm to be transformed into a nuclear waste repository for the final disposal of low-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste. The plans were …Read more

The state of Cabinda was declared annexed by Angola without any Cabindan participation in 1975. Despite protests by the Cabindan people, Angola exercised sovereignty over Cabinda. Groups in Cabinda attempted to re-claim autonomy of their country in 2002, but Angola undertook a massive military campaign against them. Angola’s large military force committed numerous documented human …Read more

Section 3(1)(a) of the Tobacco Products Control Act of 1993 (the “Act”) prohibited any person from “advertising” or “promoting” a tobacco product.  The appellant, a tobacco manufacturer, contended that this prohibition should not extend to its one-to-one communication with consenting adult consumers of tobacco products as it was an unconstitutional limit on both the appellant’s …Read more

The governor of the Miyazaki Prefecture granted permission for a company that collects, transports, and disposes of industrial waste to establish an industrial waste treatment facility. When the company applied for permission, it submitted a document called the “Environmental Impact Survey Report,” which detailed the survey results regarding the impact of the establishment of the …Read more

The plaintiff brought the case to the First Instance Criminal Court of Lomas de Zamora [Juzgado de Garantias n° 3 de Lomas de Zamora] against three workers of the painting factory “MATRA” who presumably threw toxic substances in an area located in Esteban Echeverría, violating Law 24 051. The First Instance Criminal Court of Lomas de …Read more

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a non-governmental organization, filed a case against the Federal Republic of Nigeria alleging human rights violations as a result of the government’s failure to ensure adequate environmental protection in the Niger Delta due to oil spillage. SERAP alleged that decades of oil prospection and exploitation by private corporations …Read more

The petitioner contended that restaurants in prohibition of Tobacco Act, 2003 and the Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Rules, 2008 are running Hookah Bars. The petitioner prayed that the respondent be directed to incorporate in the license, compliance with the Tobacco Act as a condition.

The Environment & Consumer Protection Foundation (the petitioner) was a registered charitable society, and filed the petition to the Indian Supreme Court (‘the court’) in 2004 by which it sought various directions to improve the conditions of government and aided schools, and schools run by local authorities so that the constitutional objective of providing free …Read more

On April 3, 2010, the Indonesian Government filed the Budget Amendment Bill of 2010 in Parliament. On May 3, 2010, a Plenary Session of the House of Representatives passed an amendment to the National Budget entitled Law No. 2 of 2010 Concerning the Amendment to Law No. 47 of 2009 Regarding the National Budget for …Read more

The Plaintiffs were nurses and heads of rural health centers in the East Kalimantan Province of Indonesia. They challenged two provisions of Law No. 36 of 2009 Concerning Health. These were Article 108(1), which allowed only certain “health workers” to prescribe and distribute medicines, and Article 190(1), which made it an offence for workers in …Read more

The plaintiff brought the case to the Civil and Commercial Court of Zarate – Campana [Juzgado en lo Civil y Comercial N° I de Zarate – Campana]  against the company Rutilex Hidrocarburos Argentinos S.A, located in Province of Buenos Aires, to be sentenced to carry out the necessary measures to cease its contaminating activities that …Read more

The plaintiff in this case was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was transferred to the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) to serve his sentence. His concern with the centre was three fold. First he wanted an order preventing two officers at the AMC from dealing with him as their treatment (usage of …Read more

This case addressed the issue of whether Hong Kong’s Director of Environmental Protection (the ͞Director) had the authority to approve an environmental impact assessment (the ͞EIA) of certain proposed Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge projects (the ͞HKZMB Projects) if the EIA did not contain a quantitative stand-alone analysis of the projected environmental impact of the HKZMB Projects. …Read more

The plaintiffs, who had an interest in the land and sea areas affected by the Ramu Nickel Project (the Project) constructed by Ramu Nicko Management (MCC) Ltd (RNM), sought a permanent injunction to restrain RNM from operating a deep-sea tailings placement (DSTP) system. In the alternative, the plaintiffs sought a declaration that they must be …Read more

This report addresses the admissibility of a petition that alleged the United States failed to fulfill its obligations under the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man (the Declaration) and the American Convention on Human Rights (the Convention), including protection of the right to health and equality before law. Mossville, Louisiana is a …Read more

Petioner brought action before the Constitutional Court, challenging the constitutionality of Law 1335 of 2009, which imposes a general ban on all forms of tobacco promotion, advertisement and sponsorship and in this case, its constitutionality is being questioned. It imposes bans on behaviors aimed at promoting the consumption of a particular group of goods but …Read more

Petitioners were a consortium of tobacco companies that filed a Writ of Amparo challenging the constitutionality of two administrative decrees (i.e., regulations emanated from the Executive Branch) that regulated and implemented Articles 8 (Protection from exposure to tobacco smoke) and 11 (Packaging and labelling of tobacco products) of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control …Read more

The appellant, Asaduzzaman, was charged with contravening s.30AA of the Food Business Regulation, Cap. 132, which prohibits a permittee of a fresh provision shop license from allowing live poultry on the premises between 8:00PM of each day to 5:00AM the next day. On the evening of 4 September 2008, Asaduzzaman took four live chickens from …Read more

The petitioner contended that despite the Tobacco Act of 2013, which prohibits the sale of tobacco near school premises, the same was occurring. He also stated that due to the availability of tobacco products, adolescents were falling prey to the ill effects of smoking and suffered from various diseases. The petitioner stated that the tobacco …Read more

This was an appeal from an order of the South Gauteng High Court. The Applicants were members of the Harry Gwala Informal Settlement (Settlement). They approached the High Court for an order against the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (Municipality) to install communal water taps, temporary sanitation facilities, refuse removal facilitation and high-mast lighting in key areas, …Read more

Miguel Ignacia Fredes Gonzalez and Ana Andrea Tuczek Fries, among others, filed an information request with the Agriculture and Livestock Service (the “SAG”), a department of the State’s Ministry of Agriculture, requesting information and documents related to transgenic crops and their location.The national director of the SAG failed to answer the request within the time …Read more

In May 2007, the State of Panama, without community consultation, granted a concession for the construction of a hydroelectric dam within the traditional lands of an indigenous community, the Ngöbe. Although the construction of the dam was still in its initial stages at the time the petition was filed, the petitioner alleged that the work …Read more

Petitioners alleged that environmental pollution from a metallurgical complex in La Oroya, Peru caused a series of violations of the rights of community members. They alleged Peru was guilty by act and omission for its failure to control the metallurgical complex; its lack of supervision of the facility’s operation; and its failure to adopt measures …Read more

This case was heard together with case 261/2008-0-0. The Petitioners, Miroslav Grcev and Stamen Filipov, challenged the constitutionality of the Anti-Smoking Law (the Law). The Law banned smoking in public premises, advertising cigarettes, and selling cigarettes to persons under the age of 16. Public premises included institutions for education, health, state administration,  public transport, and …Read more

The Public Ombudsman brought a preventive action against the Ministry of Housing, Zoning and the Environment and the Municipal Government of Montevideo, for lead contamination in the soil of the neighborhood of La Teja. The contamination was discovered in 2001, and a number of measures were taken by relevant public agencies and by the executive …Read more

B, a Romanian national, was sentenced to ten years in prison for fraud by the Court of Appeal of Timisoara. In January 2003 B lodged an application with the European Court of Human Rights based on the conditions of his detention in the prisons of Arad and Timisoara. B alleged that Romania violated Article 3 (prohibition of torture) of the European …Read more