The European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday dismissed a double challenge to the law against hunting with hounds, ruling the ban did not breach rights legislation. The government outlawed many types of hunting in 2004 in the face of noisy opposition from some rural groups. Judges in Strasbourg dismissed applications from the Countryside Alliance campaign group and an individual ...

Experts from 50 nations meeting in Madrid have reached a draft agreement on international standards for the protection of privacy and personal data, participants said Friday. Under the proposed standards, data may only be processed after obtaining the "free, unambiguous and informed consent" of the data subjects and it should be deleted when it is no longer necessary for the ...

Italian political leaders of left and right were united with the Vatican Wednesday in condemning a European court ruling that crucifixes displayed in schools are a breach of human rights. The reactions came quickly after the European Court of Human Rights ruling in response to a case brought by an Italian mother opposed to the hanging of crucifixes on classroom ...