''Modinos v. Cyprus'' 16 EHRR 485 (25 March 1993) is a judgment of the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...

concerning Article 8 of the

European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by t ...

Case

The case was initiated by Alexandros Modinos, a gay rights activist who had founded ''Apeleftherotiko Kinima Omofilofilon Kiprou'' (AKOK), or "Cypriot Homosexual Liberation Movement", in 1987. At the time, Modinos was involved in a sexual relationship with another male adult, and claimed to suffer great strain, apprehension, and fear of prosecution by reason of

Section 171 of the Criminal Code of Cyprus Section 171 of the Criminal Code of Cyprus was a section of the Cyprus Criminal Code, which was enacted in 1929, that criminalized homosexual acts between consenting male adults. Until 1998, the section read:"Any person who (a) has carnal knowledg ...

, which criminalized certain homosexual acts.

Judgment

The court ruled by 8 votes to one that the existence of a prohibition continuously and directly affected the applicant's private life, thus there was an interference with his right to respect for private life. As the Government limited their submissions to maintaining that there was no interference, and did not seek to argue that there existed a justification under Article 8(2) for the impugned legal provisions, the Court did not find that—in the light of the above-mentioned fact and having regard to its judgment in '' Dudgeon v. United Kingdom'' and '' Norris v. Ireland''—a re-examination of the question was called for.

References

*, Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights European Court of Human Rights cases involving Cyprus European Court of Human Rights case law on LGBT rights LGBT rights in Cyprus 1993 in LGBT history 1993 in case law 1993 in Cyprus {{Cyprus-stub