CYIL vol. 15 (2024)

PETR KONŮPKA In particular, judgment of V, in which the Czech Republic was convicted for the second time in its history for a violation of the right to life, both develops the Court’s case-law on the protection of persons with psychosocial disabilities and will undoubtedly contribute to the improvement of domestic practice. The overall balance of the Czech Republic is very encouraging. Only two violations in the context of almost 350 applications decided is an excellent result. It is a reflection both of the quality of the state’s representation before the Strasbourg Court and to the good decision making activity of the Czech courts. However, it is certainly not appropriate to rest on our laurels. Many human rights issues may not even come before the courts at all, given the difficulty of access to justice and legal aid in practice for underprivileged persons. Last year was also marked by significant steps in the execution of the Court’s judgments. In particular, developments in addressing discrimination of Roma pupils in education have been encouraging. But here too, naturally, much remains to be done. At the beginning of 2024, the Court had a number of very interesting and important applications before it. First and foremost, the interstate application of Liechtenstein against the Czech Republic, 60 applications alleging the insufficiency and ineffectiveness of criminal protection against non-consensual sexual acts, 61 a complaint against sterilization as a condition for legal recognition of gender reassignment, 62 an application alleging the lack of access to inclusive education, 63 applications related to restitution of church property, 64 and many others. There is much to look forward to from the Strasbourg kitchen in 2024 too.

60 Application no. 35738/20. 61 Y v. Czech Republic (no. 10145/22) and Z v. Czech Republic (no. 37782/21).

62 T. H. v. Czech Republic (no. 33037/22). 63 S. v. Czech Republic (no. 37614/22). 64 Suverénní řád Maltézských rytířů v. Czech Republic (no. 15440/22) and Rybářství Třeboň, a. s. v. Czech Republic (nos. 18037/19 and 33175/22).

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