Overview of recent cases before the European court of human rights (October 2022 – December 2022)
| Published date | 01 March 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/13882627231155044 |
| Author | Eleni De Becker |
| Date | 01 March 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Case Reports |
Overview of recent cases before
the European court of human
rights (October 2022 –
December 2022)
Eleni De Becker
Free University Brussels and KU Leuven, Pleinlaan 2, Brussels
and Blijde-inkomststraat 17, Leuven, Belgium
Abstract
In this reporting period (October 2022 –December 2022) two cases before the European Court
of Human Rights (ECtHR) will be presented.
1
They both concern discrimination on grounds of sex.
The first case is Beeler v. Switzerland (appl. no. 78630/12), which dealt with the termination of a
survivor’s pension for widowers when the youngest child reaches adulthood. Such termination
does not occur for widows. The ECtHR had to review whether the difference in treatment on
the basis of sex violated the prohibition of discrimination in Article 14 ECHR, read in conjunction
with the right to family life in Article 8 ECHR. Moraru and Marin v. Romania (appl. no. 53282/18 and
31428/20) is the second case that will be discussed. In this case, the employment agreements of the
applicants were terminated automatically once they reached the retirement age for women, which
was lower than for men. Also in this case, the Court had to review whether there was a violation of
the prohibition of discrimination of sex, albeit on the basis of Article 1 of Protocol no. 12.
Keywords
prohibition of discrimination, equal treatment, discrimination based on sex, narrow margin of
appreciation, survivor’s pension, termination of survivor’s pension for widowers when youngest
child reached adulthood while widows continued to receive a survivor’s pension, scope of
automatic termination of employment agreement when the retirement is reached, different
retirement age between men and women
Corresponding author:
Eleni De Becker, Free University Brussels and KU Leuven, Pleinlaan 2, Brussels and Blijde-inkomststraat 17, Leuven,
Belgium.
Emails: eleni.de.becker@vub.be or eleni.debecker@kuleuven.be
1. The cases where selected on the basis of their relevance for social security (defined in a broader manner), also taking into
account procedural elements arising out of the rights in the ECHR.
Case Reports
European Journal of Social Security
2023, Vol. 25(1) 87–94
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/13882627231155044
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