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

Following a petition filed by the Uday Foundation, in February 2011, the Court ordered the Union of India to state whether a global policy had been framed regarding the subject of “junk food” and the emphasis of health and nutrition in schools. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FFSAI) responded to the Court …Read more

Mrs. Bentley was an 83-year-old woman suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. Mrs. Bentley had not spoken since 2010 and did not recognize anyone. In 1991 she had signed a directive that expressed her desire to be allowed to die and not be kept alive by artificial means or heroic measures in case there was no reasonable …Read more

The plaintiff, a childminder in the employ of the Municipality of Billund (the defendant), was fired. The plaintiff claimed such firing was due to his obesity, although  the defendant claimed that the plaintiff was fired due to a decline in the number of children for him to take care of. The European Convention for the …Read more

Petitioner, an elderly retired person, was diagnosed with diabetes and Benign Hypertrophy (a life-threatening terminal disease). Petitioner claimed that that the cost of the medication was prohibitive and that he was in need of urgent medical attention. Petitioner sought assistance of the court to enforce his fundamental rights to the highest attainable standard of health …Read more

While incarcerated in congested prison with poor hygienic conditions, Dudley Lee was infected with tuberculosis (TB).  The responsible prison authorities were aware of the risk of the inmates’ contracting TB, but did not have a comprehensive system in place to reduce the risk of infection. Rather, the prison authorities relied on a system of inmates …Read more

This case concerned the Kichwa nation of the Ecuadorian Amazon, which encompassed two Peoples who shared the same linguistic and cultural tradition. The State of Ecuador had granted a private oil company a permit to carry out oil exploration and exploitation of activities in the ancestral territory of the Kichwa nation. The State did not …Read more

This case deals with the destruction of the Mayan community of Río Negro by a series of massacres perpetrated by the Guatemalan army and members of the civil self-defence patrols in 1980 and 1982 which, according to the IACmHR, included the persecution and elimination of members of the Mayan community, subsequent violations directed against the …Read more

S, an adult male diagnosed with schizophrenia, lived for many years with his half-sister and step-mother, his closest living relatives, before they applied in 2000 to the Ruse Regional Court to have S declared legally incapacitated. The court declared S only partially incapacitated. S’s family refused to accept guardianship for S, and the court instead …Read more

On 28 October 1997, JC (a military officer) was arrested by Zambian police for an attempted coup d’état. He was severely tortured and charged with treason. While being tortured, he was forced to sign false confessions and to implicate other military officials. Because of the torture, he was hospitalized at various times. On 31 October …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 Centre for Human Rights and the La Rencontre Africaine pour la Defense des Droits de l’Homme submitted a communication to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in relation to the condition of some schools in Senegal. More than 100,000 children were forced to beg on the streets …Read more

The applicant Mr Vladimir Aleksandrovich Vasilyev, a Russian national was born in1953. In 1996 he was arrested for attempted rape and several counts of murder. Later in December, 1997 he was convicted of rape and murder and was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of the Komi Republic. In 1999 the President of Russia …Read more

The petitioners claimed that a group of armed police officers arrived on their land and without warning or a court order begun demolishing the houses and structures of the petitioners, leaving them homeless. Further, they alleged that police used tear gas and physical violence to evict the petitioners, who were resisting the demolition. The petitioners …Read more

This case was a decision on the constitutionality of an executive decree ordering the declaration of a state of emergency intended to prohibit the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages throughout the country for 72 hours, due to cases of poisoning from alcoholic beverages adulterated with methanol. Articles 165 and 166 of the Constitution and …Read more

The issues presented in this case involved citizens living in poverty and the gaps in essential services provided by the government. The first issue was the availability of cash assistance to new mothers. The petitioners alleged that, per past orders of the Supreme Court, benefits should be made available to them under both the National …Read more

This case deals with two petitions, Laxmi Mandal v. Deen Dayal Hari Nagar Hospital and Jaitun v. Maternity Home, MCD, Jungpura. Shanti Devi, Laxmi Mandal’s (the Petitioner) sister, died shortly after giving birth to a premature baby. This was her sixth pregnancy. The previous pregnancy ended in miscarriage. Shanti Devi was not provided with any …Read more

The plaintiff was the father of two children whose second child was breastfed for the first 6 months and then was switched to a milk formula. In 2008, the Bogor Agricultural Institution published research that there were a number of infant formulas which were contaminated by enterobactersakazakii bacteria which could cause enteritis, sepsis and meningitis. …Read more

Indigenous community Xákmok Kásek brought an action against the government of Paraguay before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for failure to meet its international responsibility of timely granting the community members’ request in 1990 for a guarantee of their right to their ancestral lands. Because the government had failed to process their request, the …Read more

The claimants, two prisoners, alleged a violation of their constitutional rights under Article 111 of the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia (the “Constitution”) based on the failure of the Government to provide adequate diet and nutrition to protect their right to health. In 2006, the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia (the …Read more

The plaintiff, Weheire, brought a suit against the Attorney-General alleging degrading and inhuman treatment during his arrest and detainment in 1986, a violation of his rights under the Constitution of Kenya (“Constitution”),. In December 1986, Weheire was arrested without a warrant.  After his arrest, Weheire claimed that his house was unlawfully searched. Weheire further alleged …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 claimants, residents of Mainland China, were parents and their children who suffered physical injuries from consuming contaminated dairy products. The claimants sought monetary compensation from the defendant, from whom they had purchased the contaminated products. The defendant is a 43% material shareholder of Sanlu Group, the manufacturer and distributor of the products. The claimants …Read more

This case is about the conditions of the applicant’s detention and the sufficiency of his medical care while he was detained in remand centre no. IZ-71/1 and correctional colony no. 7 in the Tula region of the Russian Federation. On 18 October 2006, the applicant, a Russian national, was arrested for drug trafficking. He was …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

The complainants, two human rights organizations based in Sudan, the United Kingdom and Canada, alleged gross and systematic violations of human rights on the part of the Republic of Sudan and Government-supported militia forces in the Darfur region against indigenous tribes, including the Fur, Marsalit and Zaghawa. The organizations alleged that since General Omar Al-Bashir …Read more

This case involved plaintiffs (parents of a minor) who filed a writ for protection of fundamental rights (amparo action) against a private insurance company (the defendant), claiming that their infant had a right to receive a milk substitute health supplement called Neocate, financed by the private medical insurance company.  The plaintiffs waited for four months …Read more

Gable Masango, a prisoner serving a twelve-year prison term in Malawi, brought suit against Malawian government officials claiming the conditions of his and his fellow prisoners’ imprisonment violated the Republic of Malawi Constitution and the Prison Regulations of the Prisons Act (“Prison Regulations”). The prisoner alleged that the prison provided insufficient resources, including insufficient diet …Read more

Mónica Núñez de Zanetti requested that the prepaid medical care company, Famyl S. A., pay for her parenteral nutrition, a life-saving diet she required as a result of a chronic small bowel resection she suffered. Famyl S.A. contended that it was not responsible for provide the nutritional services because Nuñez’s peritonitis was the result of …Read more