Single-Axis Rights in a Multi-Axis World: The Need for Intersectionality in European Headscarf Ban Jurisprudence
The European Court of Human Rights (the Court) recently issued its ruling in Mikyas v. Belgium (Mikyas), upholding the ban on visible religious symbols, including headscarves (hijab), in Dutch-language educational institutions run directly by the Flemish authorities. The Court accepted Belgium’s justifications of neutrality, equal opportunities, and preventing segregation. This decision aligns with the Court’s […]
What the European Court of Human Rights Can Learn from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Intersectionality
Introduction The impact of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (European Court) on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Inter-American Court) has been historically significant, as it has been included in its argumentation on various subjects. Although there has been a greater jurisprudential flow between both courts in recent years, references to […]
Intersectionality in Strasbourg: ensuring an effective protection of Convention rights
This blog symposium, and the project it is part of, are revisiting a number of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights through an intersectional lens. Such effort, which requires looking at jurisprudence of the Strasbourg court in a creative way, could contribute to ensuring a protection of human rights that is much more […]
Dismantling the gendered understanding of pregnancy in discrimination cases under the ECHR
Introduction The experiences of cisgender women are frequently linked to prevailing conceptions about pregnancy and childbirth. Transgender men, as well as other non-binary individuals expressing male gender expressions, are frequently marginalised by these cisnormative assumptions regarding pregnancy status and experiences (Besse et al, 2020). At the outset, it is useful to clarify four terms pertinent […]
The Court’s failure to distinguish poverty from race as intersecting grounds of oppression: reinforcing anti-Roma stigma
Hudorovic and Others v. Slovenia: domestic law prevented indigent Roma from connecting their homes to clean water and sewerage, while the ECtHR assumed they chose their living conditions, dismissing poverty as a factor. It found no violation, and not even that rights invoked – home/ family life, no degrading treatment, non-discrimination – necessarily applied. Facts […]
G.M. and Others v. Republic of Moldova: at the intersection of gender, disability, institutionalisation, and rape survivor status
While nearly 35 years have passed since Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” in her essay, the concept has not gained the prominent role in anti-discrimination law that it deserves. It has become an important tool in understanding individual, structural, institutional and historical aspects that impact equality, and is often referred to in academic discourses […]
Intersectionality and the failures of the European Court of Human Rights: A critical analysis of Hämäläinen v. Finland
In Hämäläinen v. Finland (2014) the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) affirmed Finland’s refusal to register Hämäläinen as a transitioned married woman. This critique analyses the judgment through the lens of intersectionality. Using the intersectionality framework, individuals have unique social and political identities, derived from factors such as gender, race, and class, which […]
The European Court of Human Rights’ Semenya case
The recent decision in the case of Caster Semenya is hardly the first instance where the Court was forced to face the music regarding its inherent aversion to explicitly challenging perceived ideas about the gender binary. The Court’s view of gender has always been problematic, confusing sex with gender, pathologising trans bodies, and only accepting […]
