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It is argued that McDonald is to be considered a missed opportunity to integrate two areas of human rights law in the judgment: disability human rights law and elderly human rights law. During the last decade, the area of disability rights has seen important developments at both the regional and international level. The adoption of several soft law instruments and particularly the high number of ratifications of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) reflect an evolving perception of the status of this group within society. The CRPD is considered ground breaking in the sense that it creates clear positive obligations for member states regarding the enjoyment of socio-economic rights, such as the provision of care services. The recognition and enforcement of such rights, however, remains a delicate and complicated issue before the Strasbourg Court.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has consistently adopted a universalist approach to treaty interpretation, reflected in its evolutive interpretation of the American Convention on Human Rights. An overview of the most important cases in which the Court clarifies this approach shows that it places its interpretation methods within the framework of the rules on treaty interpretation, codified in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The international human rights context which the Court takes into account in its interpretation process is, however, not limited to external binding human rights treaties, but includes soft law instruments as well as treaties not ratified by the member state in question. Similar trends of external referencing identified in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights have raised important questions regarding its legitimacy, with the European Court being accused of “cherry picking” and judicial activism. This article therefore analyses the Inter-American Court’s use of external sources and discusses the same legitimacy questions in light of the Inter- American Court’s interpretive practice, taking into account the specific provisions on treaty interpretation in the American Convention on Human Rights and the different role “regional consensus” plays in the Inter-American human rights system. In addition, the article discusses the positive aspects of external referencing, namely its integrating effect, in order to determine whether the advantages of the defragmentation of human rights norms and the Court’s striving for the most effective protection of human rights outweigh the legitimacy concerns.

Older men and women have been identified as facing many human rights violations, yet provisions protecting this category are scattered over a large number of highly diverse instruments. Notwithstanding increased calls for a global binding instrument, European States in particular are reluctant to draft such a new human rights treaty. Although important soft law developments have taken place at the level of the Council of Europe – such as the new Recommendation on the promotion of the human rights of older persons – a treaty tailored to the needs of older persons does not exist at the regional level either. This has not, however, held back older persons from bringing their claims in terms of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) before its monitoring body. This paper aims to assess to what extent the specific needs of older persons have been integrated into this regional human rights mechanism, based on an analysis of relevant cases brought before the European Court of Human Rights. In other words, this paper aims to establish whether interpreting the ECHR from an older persons’ perspective has or can have both an integrating and strengthening effect on the protection of the rights of older persons in Europe

The FRANET Annual Report on Belgium reports on developments and events on a variety of human rights issues. This year's report includes following topics: 1. Asylum, immigration and integration 2. Visa and border control 3. Information society, respect for private life and data protection 4. Rights of the child 5. Equality and non-discrimination 6. Racism, xenophobia and related intolerance 7. Roma integration 8. Access to justice and judicial cooperation 9. Victims of crime, including compensation of victims 10. EU Member States and international obligations 11. References to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in national jurisprudence

Op 7 juni 2012 publiceerde de European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) haar nieuw rapport over de gedwongen opname en behandeling van personen met geestelijke gezondheidsproblemen in de EU. Het rapport bevat een juridische analyse van de geldende internationale en nationale normen, alsook een weergave en analyse van de ervaringen van personen met geestelijke gezondheidsproblemen die een gedwongen opname en behandeling hebben ondergaan. Op 20 december 2011 sprak het Hof van Cassatie zich ook uit over de gevolgen van onaangepaste behandeling en verzorging tijdens de uitvoering van een interneringsmaatregel.Het Hof oordeelde dat het gebrek aan aangepaste zorg en behandeling een onrechtmatigheid in de zin van artikelen 5, 1., e) en 5, 4. EVRM kan opleveren. Zowel het rapport als de nieuwe Cassatierechtspraak vestigen eens te meer de aandacht op de aanhoudende knelpunten inzake gedwongen opname, gedwongen behandeling en internering.

These ad hoc information reports constitute the background information drawn on by the FRA in order to compile its legal comparative analysis for the report on Access to Data Protection Remedies in EU Member States. These reports were prepared under contract by the FRA's research network, FRANET, upon an ad hoc information request. They consist of an overview of the existing redress mechanisms in the area of data protection in the 28 EU Member States.

The report illustrates the evolution of Belgian policies in the fields of intellectual disability and mental health, from 2005 to the present, in relation to four themes: community living; fundamental rights in institutions; legal capacity and access to justice. The report will be published on the website of the FRA in the near future.