Tuesday, March 29, 2022, Professor Iulia Motoc, PhD professor at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Bucharest and a Romanian judge at the ECHR, won the award for the best opinion formulated by an ECHR judge in 2021.
“I am honored to announce that I have won the award for the best separate opinion of an ECHR judge in 2021. My opinion on N. v. Romania refers to discrimination and the rights of persons with disabilities”, is the message sent by Professor Iulia Motoc, PhD, on a social network.
The prize was awarded for the opinion linked to N. v. Romania, according to the information available on the Strasbourg Observers website.
N. v. Romania refers to the procedures in which the national courts deprived the applicant of his legal capacity and placed him under the full authority of a legal guardian, as well as to the manner in which the national authorities subsequently changed his guardian. The ECHR found a violation of Article 8, as the decision to change the legal guardian was considered not to be based on relevant and sufficient reasons and therefore not proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued. The majority did not consider it necessary to conduct a separate examination of the admissibility and merits of the other complaints, including the applicant’s complaint of discrimination on reasons of health under Article 14 in conjunction with Article 8.
In her partially dissident opinion, Professor Iulia Motoc, PhD, argued that there had been a violation of Article 14 in conjunction with Article 8. She analyzed the majority’s refusal to consider Article 14 in this case, based on the views of university professors who entitled the provision the “Cinderella” of the Convention.Professor Iulia Motoc, PhD, then added her own understanding of Article 14 as the ECHR’s “Hamlet” article, arguing why it is so important to be willing to consider discrimination against people with mental disabilities. She pointed out that human rights are often forgotten in the field of mental health and that those suffering from mental health difficulties are often subject to discrimination and other forms of marginalization, making them particularly vulnerable to human rights violations (paragraphs 7-9).
