Stephanos Stavros

Stephanos Stavros is a human-rights lawyer who has worked for the ECtHR and other Strasbourg-based monitoring mechanisms. The views expressed are, of course, personal.

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Respecting Subsidiarity While Guaranteeing the Right to a Tribunal Established in Accordance with National Law: From Astradsson to Xero Flor

Respecting Subsidiarity While Guaranteeing the Right to a Tribunal Established in Accordance with National Law: From Astradsson to Xero Flor

International bodies like the ECtHR should not easily substitute their assessment for that of national judges who have analysed a human-rights issue ‘properly’. So much is dictated by subsidiarity; and it would be paradoxical if this ...
Association Accept and Others v. Romania: The European Court of Human Rights Takes a Fresh Look at Homophobic Speech and Biased Criminal-Law Enforcement

Association Accept and Others v. Romania: The European Court of Human Rights Takes a Fresh Look at Homophobic Speech and Biased Criminal-Law Enforcement

That hate-speech victims (who have sued unsuccessfully in a CoE member state) should obtain redress in Strasbourg is hardly surprising nowadays and ought not to constitute ‘news’. Yet their cases continue to attract interest for ...
A Gay Kiss on the Internet: Can Strasbourg Litigation Help Win the War Against Homophobia?

A Gay Kiss on the Internet: Can Strasbourg Litigation Help Win the War Against Homophobia?

On 14 January 2019, the European Court of Human Rights found a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in Beizaras and Levickas v Lithuania, as a result of the Lithuanian authorities’ failure to prosecute ...
The European Court of Human Rights’ judgment in Molla Sali: A call for Greece to modernise its system for national-minority protection?

The European Court of Human Rights’ judgment in Molla Sali: A call for Greece to modernise its system for national-minority protection?

Greece is one of eight Council of Europe member states not to have ratified the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. It has, nevertheless, kept in place a system for safeguarding certain distinct identities, ...
A Duty to Prosecute Hate Speech under the European Convention on Human Rights?

A Duty to Prosecute Hate Speech under the European Convention on Human Rights?

Freedom of expression is “one of the essential foundations of any democratic society” (Handyside) and recent events have shown that Europeans remain firmly committed to it. At the same time, hate speech remains a problem and the ...