The Gazette 1977

MAY-JUNE

GAZETTE

The 126th Session of the European Commission of Human Rights

(Strasbourg, Monday, 28 February—Friday, 11 March, 1977) The 126th Session of the European Commission of Human Rights was held at Strasbourg at the Human Rights Building from 28 February to 11 March 1977. At the close of the Session the Secretary to the Commission gave the following information on matters dealt with in the Commission: The Commission considered some 160 individual applications (Art. 25 of the European Convention on Human Rights). A. Examination of admissibility 1. Applications declared admissible Four applications were declared admissible by the Commission: L A r t i c 0 v U a l y The admitted complaint under Art. 6 (3) (c) of the Convention concerns the lack of legal assistance in criminal proceedings against the applicant before the Court of Cassation. 2. De Weer v. Belgium The applicant, a butcher, was charged with offences under the price legislation and informed that his shop would be provisionally closed. The Public Prosecutor offered to discontinue the proceedings if the applicant paid a fine of 10,000 BF within ten days. The applicant accepted in order to avoid the closure of his shop. He invokes in particular Art. 6 of the Convention. 3. X and Y v. Belgium (Application No. 7238/75). The applicants, Belgian doctors, complain of disciplinary proceedings against them as being contrary to Art. 6 of the Convention; they also invoke Art. 11. The application was joined with an earlier application raising the same issues. 4. Guzzardi v. Italy The applicant complains of his confinement to an Italian island as a security measure. II. Applications declared inadmissible or struck off the list 1. Ordinary proceedings After substantial deliberations the Commission declared 22 applications inadmissible and struck three applications of its list of cases. The following were among the applications declared inadmissible: (1) three applications (Nos. 6782-6784 / 74) concerning criminal convictions for indecent publications in Belgium; (2) an application (No. 6832/74) concerning trade union benefits in Sweden; (3) an application (No. 6853/74) concerning education in Swedish municipal nursery schools;

(4) an application (No. 6930/75) concerning representation through a guardian in court proceedings in Norway; (5) two applications (Nos. 7126 and 7573/76) complaining of exposure to anti-riot gas in Long Kesh, Northern Ireland, in 1974; (6) an application (NO. 7130/75) complaining of the taking of evidence in a Belgian court; (7) an application (No. 7704/76) concerning the treatment of gypsies of the Kalderas tribe, who had come from the Netherlands, in the Federal Republic of Germany. 2. Summary proceedings The Commission also declared 69 applications inadmissible and struck off its list of cases six applications in the summary procedure which it uses in cases which do not raise any special problems. III. Applications communicated to Governments The Commission decided to bring ten applications to the notice of the respondent Governments inviting them to submit their written observations on die admissibility of these applications. Among these applications were: (1) two applications (Nos. 6973 and 7368/76) concerning alleged assaults by prison officers and subsequent attempts to take legal action in the United Kingdom; (2) an application (No. 7262/75) concerning detention on remand and subsequent detention as a mental patient in Belgium; (3) an application (No. 7402/76) concerning a trial in the United Kingdom; (4) an application (No. 7408/76) concerning the treat- ment of a remand prisoner in a German prison; (5) an application (No. 7654/76) concerning the refusal of the Belgian authorities to modify the birth certificate of a person on the ground that he had changed his sex; (6) an application (No. 7710/76) complaining that the applicant, following his arrest in Switzerland, was not brought promptly before a "judge or other of- ficer authorised by law to exercise judicial powers" (Art. 5 (3) of the Convention); (7) an application (No. 7743/76) concerning corporal punishment in a secondary school in Scotland; (8) two applications (nos. 7823 and 7824/76 against the Federal Republic of Germany and the Netherlands) concerning the situation of gypsies of the Kalderas tribe who, having stayed for some time in Germany, have now been readmitted to the Netherlands; IV. Hearings to be held In the following cases the Commission decided to hold a hearing of the parties: 81