Gendered Political Dissent Beyond the Text of European Human Rights Judgments

Abstract: 

Gendered political oppression remains difficult to identify and assess within existing human rights jurisprudence, particularly in cases involving women political dissenters. While the European Court of Human Rights is a key venue for challenging political repression, the gendered dimensions underlying such claims do not attrack the same attention. This talk presents the pilot study, funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), "Women political dissenters: going beyond the text of European human rights rulings". The project examines two landmark cases decided by the European Court of Human Rights – Zarema Musayeva and Vanessa Kogan – through the PAN (process-actors-narrative) approach to human rights litigation. By reconstructing the procedural evolution of these cases, identifying the actors who shaped them, and situating them within their broader socio-political contexts, the study seeks to develop and test an analytical framework for examining gendered political oppression.

This even will be hybrid. Please contact feminist-juris@law.ox.ac.uk to received the link to join online.

About the speaker

Dr. Aikaterini (Katerina) Tsampi is Assistant Professor of International Law at the Law Faculty of the University of Groningen (Department of Transboundary Legal Studies). She is the author of the monograph Le principe de séparation des pouvoirs dans la jurisprudence de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme (Pedone-Paris, 2019) and over 50 other publications (https://www.rug.nl/staff/a.tsampi/research). She has written extensively on ECHR and rule of law, including misuse of power/Article 18 ECHR, and broader international human rights issues, including health (tobacco control) and the rights of island populations. Her research appears in legal journals including the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, ECHR Law Review, and Netherlands Journal of International Law, and features in the ECtHR Knowledge Sharing platform (ECHR-KS). Keen on interdisciplinary approaches, Dr. Tsampi has contributed to top journals across various fields (e.g. Island Studies Journal, the European Journal of Pediatrics). She is a founding editorial board member of the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research/NNHRR’s blog, “Human Rights Here”.

Dr. Tsampi is Rapporteur of the ILA Study Group on “International Law, Human Rights and Islands” (2025-2028) and co-leads the "Islands and Sustainability Lab" at the Rudolf Agricola School. She serves on the NNHRR Steering Committee and the ILA Committee on “Abuse of Rights in International Law”. She also holds fellowships with Athens PIL and the Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health.

She teaches in the highly ranked Public International (Human Rights) Law programme-University of Groningen and has coached and judged human rights moot courts in English and French (Helga Petersen Moot Court Competition, Concours René Cassin). Previously, she served as Legal Officer at the Greek National Commission for Human Rights. She earned her law degree in Athens, LLMs from Paris II and Bordeaux IV-Athens, and a PhD from the University of Strasbourg.

While in residence at the Bonavero Institute, Dr. Tsampi will explore the intersection of gender and political oppression, within the project “Women political dissenters: going beyond the text of European human rights rulings”, funded by Dutch Research Council (NWO) through a personal grant.