Content area
Full Text
J Cross Cult Gerontol (2013) 28:407420
DOI 10.1007/s10823-013-9212-7
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Benny Spanier & Israel Doron & Faina Milman-Sivan
Published online: 20 October 2013# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract One of the most significant human rights tribunals in Europe is the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Up to day, no study has attempted to explore the cases brought before the ECtHR that discuss and rule on issues concerning the rights of older persons. To descriptively analyze the ECtHR cases that deal with older persons and elder rights issues. Quantitative and descriptive analysis of 226 randomly selected publicly-open ECtHR cases dealing with elder-rights between the years 20002010. On average, 11.9 % of the ECtHR case load included rulings that concern older persons rights. In the majority of the cases (91 %, 205 judgments), the ECtHR found a violation of at least one human right concerning older persons. Despite the fact that rights of older persons do not appear as such in the European Convention on Human Rights, older persons do find their way to the ECtHR.
Keywords Human rights . European court of human rights . Elder law. Elder rights . Jurisprudential gerontology
Introduction
The aging population is one of the most pressing issues phenomena on the agenda of Europe today (Doron 2007; Schroods et al. 1999). As a result, there is a growing academic and public interest in the interaction between law, society and ageing (Doron 2008; Herring 2009; Kapp 2003). Moreover, the increasingly growing population of older persons raises new questions about the protection and advancement of their human rights, both on national and international tribunals (Doron 2005). Nevertheless, almost no empirical investigation has been performed regarding their rights in the international arena in general, or the European arena in specific. One possible explanation for the relative paucity of research is the absence of older persons rights from some of the relevant international conventions (Rodriguez-Pinzon and Martin 2003). Another explanation might be the previous lack of
B. Spanier : F. Milman-Sivan
Faculty of Law, University of Haifa, Mount Camel, Haifa 31905, Israel
I. Doron (*)
Department of Gerontology, University of Haifa, Mount Camel, Haifa 31905, Israel e-mail: [email protected]
Older Persons use of the European Court of Human Rights
408 J Cross Cult...