Avenue de l'Europe
Sporer v. Austria 
| 2011
Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life...
Extract from Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights
Gerald Sporer had a son born out of marriage. When his relationship with the mother ended, he applied for custody of their child.
However, under Austrian law, custody of a child born out of marriage was automatically given to the mother, with only a few exceptions.
The mother was therefore given sole custody of their child.
The European court noted that, if the couple’s child had been born within a marriage, then the Austrian courts could have granted custody to Gerald Sporer if this had been in the child’s best interests.
However, because the child had been born outside of marriage, Gerald could only obtain custody in exceptional circumstances.
He had therefore been discriminated against without sufficient justification, compared to a father of a child born within a marriage. This had breached his basic rights.
In 2013 the law in Austria was changed, so that courts can grant custody rights to the fathers of children born out of marriage, according to the child’s best interests.
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Bruised and beaten, Angelica Bălșan suffered eight assaults from her husband and sustained injuries that required up to ten days of medical care. She complained to the authorities, but they took no proper steps to protect her. The European court held that Angelica had been inadequately protected against the abuse – leading to ongoing reforms to combat domestic violence in Romania.
In February 1992, 25,671 people in Slovenia were automatically stripped of their right to live there. Many people – including Ana Mezga - had their papers taken away, were evicted from their homes, could not work, lost personal possessions or had their families broken apart. The law was changed and a compensation scheme set up after a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights.
Austria
Belgium
Romania
Slovenia