Overview of recent cases before the European court of human rights (October 2022 – December 2022)

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.