General measures
When the European Court of Human Rights finds a violation, the country in question often has to take compliance measures and to amend parts of its legislation. The Court’s judgments also lead to frequent evolutions of national tribunals’ case-law.
- Austria ended the monopoly applying to television
- Belgium amended its laws on homeless people and adopted measures to prohibit any discrimination against children born outside marriage
- Bulgaria created an alternative to military service for conscientious objectors
- Croatia introduced an effective remedy against the excessive length of court proceedings
- Czechia passed a new bankruptcy law
- Denmark extended the right not to belong to a trade union
- Finland amended its law on child custody and visiting rights
- France, Spain and the United Kingdom passed laws on telephone tapping
- Germany gave celebrities a greater right not to have their private photographs published
- Greece improved detention conditions for foreigners awaiting deportation
- Hungary introduced fairer decision-making with regard to prolongation of remand in custody
- Ireland decriminalised homosexual acts
- Italy made it compulsory for defence lawyers to appear before the Court of Cassation
- Latvia abolished discriminatory language tests for election candidates
- Moldova recognised freedom of religion
- the Netherlands amended its legislation on the detention of patients with mental illnesses
- Poland introduced an effective compensation system for certain persons whose property had been expropriated following the Second World War
- Romania cancelled provisions making it possible to annul final court decisions
- the Slovak Republic amended its legislation on child placement
- Slovenia took measures to prevent ill-treatment by the police
- Sweden amended its provisions on public trials
- Switzerland reviewed its criminal court system and criminal procedures
- Turkey abolished the presence of military judges in state security courts
- Ukraine amended its libel legislation
- the United Kingdom banned corporal punishment in schools.
European Court of Human Rights judgments in cases of human rights violations have led to the improvement of people’s lives across Council of Europe member states.
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