First ECtHR judgment on compulsory childhood vaccination: No violation of the Convention
In its Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Vavřička and Others v. the Czech Republic (applications no. 47621/13 and five other applications) the European Court of Human Rights held, by a majority (sixteen votes to one), that there had been no violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private life) of the European Convention on Human Rights. In the Czech Republic there is a general legal duty to vaccinate children against nine diseases that are well known to medical science. Compliance with the duty cannot be physically enforced. Parents who fail to comply, without good reason, can be fined. Non-vaccinated children are not accepted in nursery schools (an exception is made for those who cannot be vaccinated for health reasons). In the present case, the first applicant was fined for failure to comply with the vaccination duty in relation to his two children. The other applicants were all denied admission to nursery school for the same reason. The Court pointed out that, under its