Overview of recent cases before the European Court of Human Rights and the European Committee of Social Rights (April 2022–September 2022)

In this reporting procedure (April 2022–September 2022)1, we present three cases before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and one case before the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR).2 All three cases before the ECtHR concern pension claims. The first case is Savickis and Others v Latvia (App no 49270/11), dealing with the payment of employment pensions in Latvia to ‘permanently resident non-citizens’. For these citizens, the Latvian legislation did not take into account periods worked in other Soviet republics at the time of the occupation of Latvia by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which it did do for Latvian citizens. The Court had to review this difference in treatment in light of the prohibition of discrimination in Article 14 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the right to property in Article 1 Protocol no. 1 to the ECHR (AP ECHR). The second report discusses a case concerning the length of the appeal proceedings relating to a reduction of the applicant's pension rights. In Bieliński v Poland (App no 48762/19), the Court had to review whether there was a violation of Article 6 ECHR (right to a fair trial) and Article 13 ECHR (right to an effective remedy). P.C. v Ireland is the third case that will be discussed (App no 26922/19). It concerns disqualification from an old-age pension while serving a sentence of imprisonment. The applicant claimed that this disqualification violated Article 1 AP ECHR read alone, as well as Article 14 ECHR read in conjunction with Article 1 AP ECHR. Finally, this overview ends with a discussion of the European Social Charter (ESC). In Unione Sindacale di Base (hereinafter: USB) v Italy (collective complaint, App no 170/2018), the ECSR had to review the compatibility of the Italian scheme of socially useful workers with several of the provisions of the ESC, including the prohibition of discrimination (Article E), read in conjunction with the right to social security in Article 12 (1) of the revised ESC.