The applicant instituted proceedings before the District Court to change her forename to Carola Brenda. The District Court held that the conditions under the Transsexuals Act were met and granted the request in 1991. In 1992, the applicant brought an action against a German health insurance company. She claimed reimbursement for hormone therapy and sex-reassignment …Read more

Mr. Damião Ximenes Lopes was admitted to Casa de Repouso on October 1st, 1999 to receive treatment for his mental illness. When his mother, Mrs. Albertina Ximenes, went to visit him three days later, Mr. Lopes had his hands bound behind his back.  He was bruised, his head was swollen, his nose bloody, and he …Read more

On June 21, 2001, the petitioner delivered a baby by the roadside and visited the second respondent’s Naguru Maternity Home/Clinic with the baby still attached to her. She received no medical care and was referred to another hospital. The petitioner was unable to walk the distance and was forced to sit outside with her newborn …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

Applicant, a student in her fifth year of basic education at a subsidized private school in the city of Coquimbo, Chile was expelled during an examination for having appeared seven months pregnant and was informed that her enrollment could not be renewed for the following school year. Her family had filed a complaint with the …Read more

The applicant, an Italian national, claimed violations under Articles 2 (right to life), 8 (respect for private and family life) and 12 (right to marry and family) of the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) after his wife obtained a legal abortion without his consent. Prior to bringing an action in the European Court of …Read more

The applicant, a United Kingdom citizen had always enjoyed dressing as a woman since her young age and had the impression that her body did not fit her mind. Thus she started treatment with a psychiatrist and underwent gender re-assignment surgery. After the procedure, she experienced problems at work such as harassment allegedly because of …Read more

Applicant, a U.K. national, alleged that English law violated her rights under Articles 2 (right to life), 3 (freedom from torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment), 8 (right to respect for his private and family life) and 9 (right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the European Convention on Human …Read more

On 20 August 1996 a police officer entered a brothel owned by the first appellant in Pretoria, paid R250 to the second appellant and a salaried employee, and received a pelvic massage by the third appellant, a prostitute. All three were charged with contravening s20(1)(aA) of the Sexual Offences Act 1957 (‘the Act’) which criminalised …Read more

Petitioners were former patients who received obstetrical care at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), a public hospital in the city of Charleston, and who were arrested after testing positive for cocaine. In 1988, concerns arose among MUSC staff about an apparent increase in the use of cocaine by patients who were receiving prenatal …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

The Appellant, Doe, an HIV-positive former inmate of the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh (SCIP), brought this claim against SCIP officials, alleging that prison practices violated his constitutional right to privacy under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. SCIP medical staff informed Doe that his HIV status would be kept confidential. However, because of practices …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

The applicant, a U.K. national, alleged that section 2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961, which contained an offence of aiding and abetting suicide under English law, violated her rights under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the Convention), in particular Articles 2 (right to life), 3 (freedom from torture …Read more

Residents of a residential elderly care facility sought judicial review of a decision to close the facility. Plymouth City Council (“Plymouth”), the owner and operator of several residential elderly care facilities, decided to close two of its facilities, including Granby Way, the home of the eight claimants. The claimants sought judicial review of Plymouth’s decision. …Read more

Eight applicants, all British citizens, lived on properties in the areas surrounding Heathrow Airport. They complained that United Kingdom’s “noise quota” policy introduced in 1993 allowing for increased flights and levels of noise at night and especially in the early morning interfered with their rights pursuant to Article 8 (right to respect for his or …Read more

Ms. Carmichele stayed at a friend’s place where Coetzee, a man who had previous history of violence and sexual misconduct, stalked her and walked around the house. She and her friend reported Coetzee’s abnormal behavior to the local police station but the police claimed that they could do nothing about him. Eventually one day when …Read more

The plaintiff filed a guarantee of protection of individual constitutional rights (amparo protection) against a public hospital in the city of Buenos Aires, to obtain the termination of a pregnancy because the fetus was anencephalic (a baby born with an underdeveloped brain and an incomplete skull), which was denied by the hospital. Abortions are illegal in …Read more

Under Islamic jurisprudence, a divorced woman is to observe her “iddah,” a mandatory period of three months, before she is eligible to remarry. During this probationary period, her marriage to her ex-husband is considered to be inactive but capable of being revitalized and reconciled. She is obligated to stay in her parents’ house, while her …Read more

Carhart, a physician who performed abortions, brought suit challenging the constitutional validity of a Nebraska statute which prohibited non-lifesaving “partial birth abortions.” The statute defined this procedure as “deliberately and intentionally delivering into the vagina a living unborn child, or a substantial portion thereof, for the purpose of performing a procedure that the person performing …Read more

In connection with an investigation into federal healthcare offenses, the Respondents, Dr Bailey and a professional healthcare association, were served with four subpoenas from the United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia as authorized under 18 U.S.C. § 3486. The subpoenas required, among other things, the production of patient medical records. Section 3486(e)(1) …Read more

The Appellant, Herring, brought this suit alleging a violation of his constitutional right to privacy after his federal probation officer, Keenan, improperly disclosed his HIV status to his sister and to his restaurant employer. In December 1993, Herring voluntarily informed his probation officer that he had taken an HIV test and that he might be …Read more

The applicant, a German national was the acknowledged and supporting father of the child, C., born out of wedlock. Five years later the mother refused visits by applicant to his son and mediation attempts failed. The applicant unsuccessfully filed an application to the Mettmann District Court (Amtsgericht) for an order granting him a right of …Read more

D was charged under s 271 of the Criminal Code with sexual assault. During the trial, D sought to introduce evidence of the complainant’s prior sexual activity pursuant to ss 276, 276.1 and 276.2 of the Criminal Code. Section 276 categorically prohibits evidence of a complainant’s sexual history when it is used to support one of …Read more

The applicant was a United Kingdom national and on his arrival at Manchester from Pakistan with N, N was found possessing heroin with the value of 100,000 pounds sterling. The applicant was released as he hadn’t possessed heroin. The police installed a listening device on B’s (a friend of the applicant’s) house without his knowledge, …Read more

The Applicant, Mr Wilibald Rudolf Matter, had been undergoing psychiatric treatment for twenty years for a continually worsening syndrome of dementia. As a result, the Čadca District Court restricted his legal capacity in 1976, and later in 1983 deprived him of all legal capacity on the ground that he suffered from an “explosive and vexatious form …Read more

Mr. Lustig-Prean and Mr. Beckett were discharged from the Royal Navy on the basis of their sexual orientation. In June 1994, Mr. Lustig-Prean was approached by military service police and, wanting to avoid further and less discrete investigations, Mr. Lustig-Prean admitted that he was homosexual. In May 1993, Mr. Beckett admitted to his superiors that …Read more

The Applicants were both exemplary members of the Royal Air Force and had been discharged solely due to being homosexual. The first appellant was an enrolled nurse.  An anonymous female caller left a message on the applicant’s answering machine stating that she knew about the applicant’s homosexuality and afterwards informed the air force authorities. In a …Read more

Under Article 20(2) of the Interim Constitution 2063 in Nepal, every woman in Nepal had the fundamental right to reproductive health. However, there were no effective health services addressing the issue of uterine prolapse, a serious ailment affecting nearly 600,000 women in Nepal. The Petitioners, among others, Pro-Public, an organization working in the area of …Read more

The constitutionality of law n° 99-641 of July 23, 1999 Loi portant création d’une couverture maladie universelle (Act Creating Universal Health Coverage), was challenged in the Conseil Constitutionnel. The Act was structured as follows: Article 1 created universal health insurance, guaranteeing everyone care under a health insurance scheme. Low income earners were given the right …Read more