Recent cases before the European Court of Human Rights
| Author | Marcin Wujczyk,Mel Cousins |
| DOI | 10.1177/1388262717699445 |
| Published date | 01 March 2017 |
| Date | 01 March 2017 |
Recent case law
Recent cases before the European
Court of Human Rights
Mel Cousins
Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
Marcin Wujczyk
Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
Private and family life, gender equality and social security. Di Trizo v
Switzerland, (Application No. 7186/09), 2 February 2016.
1
This note examines the recent Di Trizio ruling by the European Court of Human Rights. The case
first involves the scope of Article 8 of the Convention as it concerns social security schemes. By a
narrow majority, the Court held that the claim fell within the scope of Article 8, but it is submitted
that the approach of the dissenting judges was a better reading of the Convention. Nevertheless, a
panel of the Grand Chamber has rejected a State request to refer the matter to the Grand Chamber.
2
Second, the case involves a rather complicated gender equality claim concerning rules for the
assessment of disability which mainly affected women.
The facts
In short, the case involved a claim by Ms. Di Trizio that Swiss rules concerning entitlement to
disability benefits discriminated against her on grounds of gender. The facts and the rules for
assessment of disability benefit in Switzerland are rather convoluted, thus we will focus here on the
key points. Ms. Di Trizio had worked part-time as a saleswoman. She ceased work in June 2002
due to back pain, and subsequently in October 2003 claimed disability benefit (rente d’invalidite
´).
She gave birth to twins in February 2004. The Swiss authorities awarded disability benefit from
June 2003 to August 2004, but decided that she was not entitled to benefit from August 2004.
Corresponding authors:
Dr. Marcin Wujczyk, Department of Labor Law and Social Policy, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
E-mail: Marcin.wujczyk@uj.edu.pl
Dr. Mel Cousins, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
E-mail: cousinsm@tcd.ie
1. The decision is only available in French at the time of writing.
2. 4 July 2016.
European Journal of Social Security
2017, Vol. 19(1) 63–70
ªThe Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1388262717699445
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