Abstract This paper examines the right to family life and how it can conflict with the child’s right to protection against harm. The paper examines how the international community views the family and what rights the family has in international law.  In addition to this, the paper also looks at the different family structure a family can have and it also examine whether there are a universal definition of family. Furthermore, the paper also talks about the children and the rights afforded to them and how the rights has developed through time. The concept of childhood is a much-debated issue. There have been debates on when the childhood begins but also on when it ends and the views of the States differs somewhat. Childhood is a concept that is heavy with different psychological, physical, religious and cultural believes and practices. When the States was working on the Convention on the Rights of the Child they had to try to consolidate the different views on both the beginning and the end of childhood but it proved to be problematic. To say that the childhood began at conception would have made the convention incompatible with the national law that allows abortion and it could therefore risk that some States did not sign the convention. They therefore made a compromise that meant that the States could keep their own definition on the beginning of childhood. The family as well as the well-being of the child is important and this is reflects in international law. This paper therefore also examines the articles in international and regional treaties concerning the family and the protection of the child.  It also examines several cases from the European Court of Human Rights to illustrate how the Court has reasoned in cases where rights of the parents has been in conflict with the children’s rights and best interest. The conclusion drawn from this paper is that no set of rights weigh more than the other. They are both very important and if it is possible, the authorities shall try to balance them with each other. They have to have both what would be best for the child and the parents right to family life in mind. Even if the authorities have to remove a child from the parents care they need to have a reunification of the family as a ultimate goal to work towards.

Freedom of religion or belief is indisputable in Human rights discourse, more discussed is exactly what it is that is included in the concept of freedom of religion or belief (in Swedish: religionsfrihet). This thesis focuses on the freedom of religion or belief in a European context, in particular on the European court of human rights and article 9 in the European convention for human rights. Some criticism has been directed against the Court to the effect that its practice and verdicts don't answer to the pronounced desire to develop a pluralistic and inclusive form of freedom of religion or belief. My aim is to examine, analyse and test three different theories, which all try to develop alternatives to the expression freedom of religion or belief, in relation to six verdicts from article 9 in Europe convention. My basic purpose is to try to find new ways of talking about freedom of religion or belief that might lead to a more inclusive, pluralistic and equal interpretation of that concept. The three theories wich I use are elaborated by Richard Amesbury (associate professor at Claremont school of Theology); Hugo Strandberg (TD at Åbo Akademi) and Eberhard Herrmann (professor in philosophy of religion at Uppsala University); and Martha Nussbaum (professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago). The six cases from the European court are: X v. Federal Republic of Germany, X v. United Kingdom, Chappell v. United Kingdom, Dahlab v. Switzerland, Leyla Sahin v. Turkey, Dogru v. France. The results of this thesis suggest that the use of alternative expression to the Swedish term religionsfrihet might to a great extent lead to a more inclusive, pluralistic and equal form of freedom of religion or belief – for example in such areas as: individuality, minorities and frames of reference in society as such.

Chapter one offers an introduction and a general outline of argument. Chapter two lays out the current scholarship on human rights and the environment and presents rejoinders to three prominent lines of objection to linking human rights and environmental interests: conceptual, those arising from issues of recognition, vagueness and conflicts between human rights, ecological, especially from those seeking protections for the environment regardless of its utility to humans, and those wishing to expand human rights beyond human interests, and adjudication concerns, namely from those sceptical that the polycentric nature of environmental issues create an insurmountable barrier to any significant improvements through judicially enforced human rights. Chapter three introduces and defends the environmental minimum as a normative framework for systematically conceptualizing the relationship between human rights and the environment. As such, it is chiefly concerned with ensuring a good faith regulatory engagement with environmental pollution: specific risks to recognised human rights trigger the environmental minimum, which then provides minimum standards (legal, established and emerging) that set the standard of review for determining whether a violation of human rights has occurred. Chapter four deals with the crucial empirical argument, outlining how the framework can systematically account for and consistently guide the further development of the case law under the European Convention on Human Rights. This conclusion rests on a comprehensive analysis of the environmental case law since 1950 using quantitative methods to expose doctrinal patterns previously not recognized in legal scholarship. Finally, chapter five explores and evaluates the potential benefits of the environmental minimum framework beyond human rights adjudication. Specifically, it investigates benefits to the varied fields of public law, regulatory policy, International Environmental Law, constitutionalism, and other international human rights treaties.

Since humans have existed on Earth, the environment has been one of the primary resources contributing to humans' ability to live life adequately. Pollution has not only destroyed natural life, but it has also diminished humans' right to life. The United Nations 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) guarantees "every human being has the inherent right to life," but how can one exercise this right in an environment that is degrading through pollution? This is the basis of which this thesis is surrounded; the issue of environmental pollution hindering humans' right to life. Thus, this thesis aims to show how legal action can be taken under the substantive right to life when environmental pollution occurs and negatively impacts humans and their surroundings. Specifically, this thesis shows how the right to life has been used in courts around the world through three primary approaches – State Constitution approach, Regional Treaty approach, and Blended approach – when environmental pollution has occurred. The different approaches will show different ways a court can come to the conclusion that there has been a violation of the right to life in the occurrence of environmental pollution. Through a comparative-analysis of the different approaches, this thesis presents yet another way to protect not only the environment, but also the rights of humans who have been negatively affected by environmental pollution.

Although women’s rights have been widely recognized in the international agenda, violence against women in the private sphere does not seem to decrease. Women are still suffering today from not enjoying the most basic human rights. States fail often to recognize domestic violence as a human rights violation because it is committed in the private sphere by non-states actors. Because of this the European Court of Human Rights decided to develop the due diligence standard in 2008 to combat violence against women. This thesis examines the European Convention on Human Rights law regarding domestic violence and the meaning of member states positive obligation and the concept of due diligence. The European Court has established that member states have several positive obligations to fulfill in order to address the issue of violence against women in the private sphere. However states fail too often to exercise the due diligence by not living up to the standards that has been established by the Court. It has been proven that the Convention articles are inconsistent. The Court needs too clarify exactly which measures states should take to address the issue of violence against women and send a clear message how much effort it takes to fill the scope of the due diligence standard. This inconsistency allows states to take stand in the law enforcements, which are contemplated to be dominated by male norms. The consequence of this is that women are usually disadvantaged in state law enforcement when it comes to violence in the private sphere. It is therefor of great importance to pay attention to women’s rights when it comes to domestic violence, as well as analyzing states approach in the domestic violence cases. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze domestic violence as men’s violence against women from a critical gender perspective by highlighting elements that effects states actions in the cases. The point of departure is to recognize similar behavior in states actions by focusing on the concept male norm and private and public sphere. The results revealed a clear pattern of the concepts. In each case signs of male norms expressed in a male position, where men are superior to women were shown. States divisions of the private and public spheres were also proven in the cases. States would prefer not to intervene when a woman was exposed to violence in the private sphere. This leads to women being suppressed and unable to reach legal protection in the private sphere.

This paper surveys the theoretical and empirical research on the efficient assignment of policy tasks to different levels of government and applies the results on the delimitation of competences within the European Union. The main results are: (i) A precise derivation of an optimal degree of decentralisation is not possible because of mixed theoretical suggestions. The adequate degree of decentralisation has to be detected case-by-case. (ii) Systematic evidence on direct relationships between economic performance and fiscal decentralisation is ambiguous and scarce. (iii) Comparing the de facto delimitation of EU-competences with the normative recommendations, remarkable discrepancies arise in the fields of agriculture and defence. (iv) The establishment of a flexible assignment-scheme by the European Convention is an undeniable necessity in order to guarantee reversibility and to cope efficiently with changing general conditions. (author's abstract) / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

The Prohibition of Racial Discrimination in the Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights The subject of this thesis is the prohibition of racial discrimination on a regional scale, which is discussed in relation to the European Court of Human Rights and its case law. The aim of this work is to present the prohibition of racial discrimination, as embodied in the most important international legal documents from the beginning of the twentieth century with a special focus on the rules contained in the legal documents of the Council of Europe, and the protection granted by the European Court of Human Rights. Race and ethnicity is seen mainly in terms of the Roma ethnicity, which is obviously not the only one who is in Europe facing the racial discrimination. Given the scope of the thesis it is not possible to address more groups belonging to the above mentioned category. The subject matter is elaborated by methods such as compilation, comparison and partially also analysis. The introductory chapter of the thesis contains general interpretation of equality and non-discrimination with explanations of important terms and concepts. The next chapter provides an overview of the prohibition of racial discrimination in human rights documents of the key international organizations. Closer attention in this...

This thesis focuses on the collective dimension of human rights. The focus of the interpretation is the analysis of the case law of the European Commission of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights. The work focuses on three rights protected by the European Convention on Human Rights. These rights are freedom of thought, conscience and religion, adjusted in Art. 9 of the ECHR, and the freedom of assembly and association, enshrined in Art. 11. The first part briefly describes the evolution of the concept of human rights. More is devoted to two different sources, which had a great influence on rather individualistic conception of human rights. This is the Reformation and the Enlightenment. It also describes the documents, in which the human rights were firstly enshrined. These are the American Declaration of Independence, the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Charter of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. In addition, it focuses on the adoption of the first international documents containing provisions on human rights, and on whether in these conventions or declarations the collective rights are enshrined. The conclusion of the first chapter presents the definitions of collective rights and also counter- arguments which are heard against this...

Title: The right to life guaranteed by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms Author: Simona Divoká Department: Department of international law Supervisor: prof. JUDr. Pavel Šturma, DrSc. Abstract: The thesis is mainly focused on the interpretation of the article 2 of the Convention which guarantees one of the most important human rights, the right to life. In the first part of the thesis I deal with the European Convention on Human Rights, especially its aplication to be clear when the violation of the Convention is possible. Then I concentrate on the functioning of European Court of Human Rights which was constituted for the purpose to execute the control of compliance with rights and liberties guaranteed by the Convention and Additional Protocols to the Convention which contracting states obligate to fulfill. Then I handle the interpretation of the article 2 of the Convention and I try to describe with the help of judicature of the Court which obligations must be fulfilled by the contracting states and how the contracting states must behave to comply with the Convention. Substantive and procedural obligations give rise to contracting states. These obligations can be divided into positive and negative obligations. I continuously describe these...

Absente de la Convention européenne des droits de l’homme, mais prévue par le règlement de la Cour, la révision des arrêts de celle-ci apparaît comme une procédure exceptionnelle qui, à première vue, ne soulève pas de problèmes particuliers. S’agissant pourtant d’une procédure qui existe dans un système institué en vue de la protection des droits de l’homme, il faut déterminer quel est le rôle que la révision peut jouer dans un tel système. A cet égard, l’examen des arrêts adoptés par la Cour à la suite des demandes en révision qui lui ont été présentées relève que la disposition régissant la révision est de nature à susciter une réflexion approfondie et ce, bien que le nombre des arrêts prononcés dans ce domaine ne soit pas impressionnant. En effet, les questions soulevées dans les procédures en révision impliquent une lecture minutieuse de ladite disposition, dont la richesse ne doit pas être sous-estimée. / Not included in the European Convention on Human Rights, but provided for by the Rules of Court, the revision of its judgments appears as an exceptional procedure that, at first glance, does not raise particular issues. However, being amongst the procedures belonging to the human rights protection system, it must be determined what role revision may play in such a system. In this respect, the examination of the judgments delivered by the Court following the requests for revision submitted to it points out that the provision governing revision is likely to give rise to a thorough reflection, even though the number of judgments in this area is not impressive. Indeed, the issues raised in the procedures for revision involve a careful reading of the before-mentioned provision, whose potential should not be underestimated.