Three writ petitions were clubbed together by the Court owing to the similarity in questions to be decided. The first Petitioner, Mr. Mahesh Bhatt, was a film maker. The second and third petitioners were engaged in the publication of the newspaper, The Hindu. The Petitioners challenged the validity of the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products …Read more

In 2000, the Ombudsman of Bolivia, on behalf of the victim, lodged a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights alleging that victim was submitted to a surgical procedure of ligature of the fallopian tubes in a public hospital without her informed consent and this was therefore an involuntary sterilization. The Ombudsman further alleged …Read more

The complainant’s principle allegation was that the portion of Article 52(2) of the Code of Medical Ethics (the “Code”) that read “a physician shall not discredit another physician publicly in any way whatsoever” violated the freedom of expression guaranteed in Article 54 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (the “Constitution”). The complainant was …Read more

K, a medical practitioner, sought judicial review proceedings to challenge the Medical Counsel of Hong Kong (‘the MC’)’s decision that certain restrictions relating to practice promotion (or advertising) contained in the Professional Code and Conduct for the Guidance of Registered Medical Practitioners (‘the Code’) were justified. K argued that these restrictions were contrary to the …Read more

The Canadian Parliament enacted the Tobacco Act (the Act) and the Tobacco Products Information Regulations (the Regulations) in response to the decision of the Court in RJR-Macdonald Inc. v. Canada (Attorney General) [1994] 1 S.C.R. 311, which struck down a previous version of the Act. The new legislation permitted information and brand-preference advertising but prohibited …Read more

On December 13, 1987, Laura Susana Albán-Cornejo was admitted to a private health institution from expressed symptoms of bacterial meningitis. On December 17, 1987, Albán-Cornejo suffered severe pain for which the resident physician prescribed a 10 mg. dose of morphine. The next day, while under medical treatment, Albán-Cornejo died. The parents, who were with their …Read more

The author of the communication was the wife of the alleged victim, a Cameroon citizen. The author alleged that a group of police officers broke into her house without a warrant, claiming to be looking for a gun,  and began beating her husband (as well as battering the author, who was in an advanced state …Read more

This report addresses the admissibility of a petition that alleged Canada failed to fulfill its obligations under the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man (the Declaration), including protection of the right to life, the right of special protection of women during pregnancy and the freedom of expression and dissemination of ideas. Anti-abortion …Read more

The Applicant, Sue Axon, alleged that the Family Planning Association violated the rights of parents under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (right to respect for private and family life). The Association provided confidential advice and treatment regarding contraception, sexually transmitted infections and abortion to persons under the age of sixteen …Read more

The Petitioner, Stamen Filipov, challenged Article 178, a provision regulating solitary confinement, of the Law on Execution of Sanctions (the Law). The Law gave the Director of a prison or his/her substitute the power to institute certain disciplinary measures against convicted persons, including warnings, public warnings, confiscation of up to 20% of the compensation for …Read more

The petitioner, Rajesh Kumar Srivastava, filed the contempt petition to enforce and to monitor the orders passed by the Supreme Court in D. K. Joshi v. State of U.P., ((2000) 5 SCC 800). In that case the Supreme Court had taken notice of the appalling condition of public health in the State of U.P. and …Read more

Applicant, a United Kingdom national who had served in the British Army, maintains that his health problems, which left him handicapped, were the result of his participation in mustard and nerve gas tests conducted while he served in the British Armed Forces at the Chemical and Biological Defense Establishment (CBDE) at Porton Down Barracks (England) …Read more

The defendant was the editor of the weekly magazine VSD (Vendredi, Samedi, Dimanche). In this case, VSD appealed a decision of the court of appeals in which the defendant was fined 200,000 francs by the Paris Court of Appeals on 24 February 1995 for complicity in illegal advertisement of tobacco as defined by the laws …Read more

The case concerned a claim that the sale of PepsiCo and Coca-Cola carbonated beverages should be banned on the account that they are contaminated with pesticide residue and suspended impurities and are therefore harmful to human life. The petitioners relied on the report published by the Centre for Science and Environment (“CSE”), which conducted an …Read more

The Applicants were four Afghani children who arrived in Australia with their parents as “unlawful non-citizens” (a person who is in the migration zone who is not an Australian citizen and who does not hold a valid visa) according to the Migration Act 1958 (the Act). The family was placed in immigration detention pursuant to …Read more

The applicant, a publishing company named Plon, and the authors of a book that contained information about former French President Mitterrand’s secret battle with cancer, entitled “Le Grand Secret,” were stopped through a court injunction by the family of President Mitterrand from distributing the book. On 23 October 1996 the Paris tribunal de grande instance, …Read more

According to Article 8 of the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act, “the level of nicotine and tar contained in the tobacco products shall be indicated on the tobacco product containers”. However, the claimant, who is a Taiwanese tobacco industry, failed to indicate the level of nicotine on the tobacco product containers while importing three different brands …Read more

This judgment is a joint judgment of two separate but nearly identical writ petitions. The first petitioner sought to attend an enquiry by the Maharashtra Medical Council, the first respondent, investigating a malpractice complaint against a former doctor, Dr. P. B. Desai, who was a nationally known figure. The first respondent denied the first petitioner …Read more

H was diagnosed as HIV positive whilst working as a care worker for the second respondent, N, the responsible health authority. Upon being diagnosed, H ceased to carry on practice as a healthcare worker and notified N of the reason for this. Under the Department of Health Guidelines (the ”guidelines”) patients who had undergone medical …Read more

The Medical and Dental Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal (“the Tribunal”) brought charges to determine whether a practitioner is guilty of punishable “infamous conduct” when in deference to a patient’s religious views which he failed to provide live-saving blood transfusions, refer the patient to another practitioner, or terminate his medical contract. The patient, Martha Okorie, and her …Read more

Cyprus lodged an application against Turkey for alleged violations of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the “Convention”) which occurred during and after the Turkish military operations in Cyprus in 1974 and the subsequent 1983 establishment of the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (“TRNC”). Cyprus alleged that Turkey was responsible …Read more

Six communications jointly alleged that the Mauritanian state committed numerous human rights violations from 1986 to 1992. Specifically, the communications alleged that the State violated articles 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, and 26 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (“the Charter”), which came into …Read more

A plastic surgeon, Dr R., brought defamation proceedings against a major Norwegian newspaper, Bergens Tidende, as well as against the newspaper’s former editor-in-chief and a journalist employed at the paper. Dr. R. claimed that the applicants had published a series of articles recounting complaints of dissatisfied patients that portrayed his care and follow-up treatment as …Read more

Living World Distributors (“LWD”) attempted to import two videos from the USA into New Zealand. The videos, which discussed aspects of homosexuality, opposed the granting of special rights to homosexuals and stated that homosexuality is one of the causes of the spread of HIV/AIDS. The videos were deemed suitable for audiences over 16 years old …Read more

The claimant argued that his freedom of expression as guaranteed under Article 19, Paragraph 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the Covenant) was violated by Belarus after he distributed leaflets leafleted for the anniversary of the proclamation of independence of the People’s Republic of Belarus. He claimed that the administrative Commission …Read more

Amnesty International and three other international human rights organizations filed a series of four complaints (Communications 48/90, 50/91, 52/91, and 89/93) on behalf of hundreds of prisoners, whom the organizations believed suffered detainment without trial, as well as various forms of torture and cruel and inhuman treatment in prison, following a coup d’état in Sudan …Read more

S, a writer and president of an Ogoni people’s movement, and L (the movement’s vice-president) were arrested in May 1994 after the murder of four Ogoni leaders following a riot which had occurred during a meeting organized by the movement. It was alleged that S was severely beaten during the first days of his detention …Read more

Residents of Manfredonia brought an action against the Italian government for failing to provide them with information about the health risks posed by a nearby chemical factory. The residents of Manfredonia lived approximately one kilometer away from the Enichem chemical factory. The factory, which produced fertilizers and caprolactam, was classified as “high risk,” because it …Read more

Mr. Francois X, a pharmacist practicing in the Rosny-sou-Bois commercial center, along with his employer, the Plus Pharmacie association, requested the annulment of decree no 96-531 of June 14 1996. The decree related to advertisement of medications and other products for medical use. The decree modifies the public health code to insert a new article …Read more