ECtHR-Judgment of 3 february 2009, Women on Waves and others v. Portugal, 31276/05 «Article 10 ECHR» — Limits for freedom for expression related to the right to life.
Keywords:
Abortion.- Right to life.-Freedom for expression.-Proportionality.- Maritime spaces.- Innocent Passage.-Territorial seas.Abstract
In 2009, the European Court of Human Rights issued its Judgment in the case of Women on Waves and others v. Portugal and found a violation of Article 10 ECHR (freedom for expression). The applicants were three NGOs, and the Dutch one owned a boat on which they used to give information courses concerning reproductive rights and abortion. In 2004 Women on Waves planned meetings on its ship in a Portuguese port, but the Portuguese authorities refused entry to the ship and blocked it by way of a war ship. At the time, abortion in Portugal was not allowed and the authorities indicated that they thought the Women on Waves ship would give Portuguese women access to forbidden abortion procedures and medicines. The European Court held the interference in the freedom for expression to be disproportionate. It noted that nothing indicated that the NGOs had wanted to administer abortion medicines. The aim was only to inform people. The Strasbourg judges emphasized again that not only the content but also the form in which information is conveyed are protected by the European Convention. It is interesting to see that the Court referred multiple times to its classics cases on abortion information, as the 1992 Open Door and Dublin Well Woman Judgment, in which a violation of Article 10 ECHR was also found.Downloads
Published
2011-03-04
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CASE LAW EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
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