Summary of Koch v. Germany and Costa and Pavan v. Italy (Hungarian)

In the upcoming issue of Fundamentum, the Hungarian human rights quarterly, you can find two summaries of Koch v. Germany and Costa and Pavan v. Italy (the language is Hungarian).

The first case concerns an application of a widow of a then deceased woman who wanted access to physician assisted suicide (PAS) in Germany. However, due to the strict rules of the German law she and - after her death - her husband could not obtain a substantive reasoning from the courts as to why she could not have a lethal dose of drugs be precribed, only refusals of their submissions.


The other case concerns the lack of access to preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for a couple suffering from cystic fibrosis, a genetically heritable disease.

There is also a very interesting article about the comperative law method used by the ECtHR written by Eszter Polgári.The author "analyses the different usages of the 'European consensus' argument in the jurosprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, and how the Court strives, or should strive, to construct a coherent standard".

The table of contents can be found here.

Editorial on the Proposed Framework Convention on Global Health

Michel Sidibéa and Kent Buse published the editorial A framework convention on global health: a catalyst for justice in the December issue of the Bulletin of the WHO.

Their main message is as follows:

[...] global health advocates must think strategically about positioning health in the post-2015 development agenda. After all, health is intrinsic to human dignity and a precondition for economic transformation, stability and security. [...] The proposed framework convention [...] places justice at its core by calling for equity measures across all commitments and by seeking the repeal of unjust laws that involve, among other things, the criminalization and persecution of sexual minorities. [...] As we approach the post-2015 agenda on sustainable development, with its emphasis on justice, mutual responsibility and solidarity, let us look to the proposed framework convention on global health as a catalyst to making justice in global health a common cause.