Biometric technology and human rights

Biometrics contributes a new dimension to authentication and identification process of persons. Besides knowledge （passwords） and possession （smart cards）, biometrics provides new means of personal identification. Biometrics procedures are used to recognize or verify behavioral or physical characteristics of a person. Also biometry provides us with a user-friendly method for automatically identification and becoming a competitor for current identification systems, especially for electronic transactions. Cause of biometric increasing position in electronic transaction and security identification system we must to assure perfect information security tools to purpose stability such a systems. But before deploying any security tools or system, one should carefully examine the sensibility and added value of it, as we do in our daily work. However, there are ways to compromise a system based on biometric identification. This article focuses on the future and draw-after of biometric identification, specifically implication on tomorrow＇s network society.     

Facial recognition technology,democracy and human rights

On 4 July 2023, the Third Section of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered the first judgment on the compatibility of facial recognition technology with human rights in Glukhin v. Russia. The case concerned the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) against Mr Glukhin following his solo demonstration in the Moscow underground. The Court unanimously found a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private life) and Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). Regarding FRT, the Court concluded that the use of highly intrusive technology is incompatible with the ideals and values of a democratic society governed by the rule of law. This case note analyses the judgment and shows its relevance in the current regulatory debate on Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems in Europe. Notwithstanding the importance of this decision, we argue that the Court has left crucial questions unanswered.     

Arising from the dead: challenges of posthumous procreation

The medical capabilities derived from modern reproductive technology, such as in vitro fertilization and cryopreservation, have enabled physicians and scientists to intervene in the procreative process in innumerable ways. However, this intervention in the natural reproductive process raises both moral and legal concerns. In this Article, Professor Schiff explores some of the conflicts that may result when an individual or couple elects to cryopreserve gametes or embryos and subsequently, one or both of the contributors dies, or when gametes are harvested from a dead body. This Article will specifically address the moral and legal responses to circumstances where the decedent has either clearly expressed opposition to posthumous use of the reproductive material or else the decedent's intent regarding posthumous use of the material is ambiguous. By discussing philosophical and moral positions relating to personhood and the body and analyzing legal issues such as reproductive choice and organ donation, Professor Schiff creates the necessary format to examine and recommend the proper legal treatment of this controversial aspect of posthumous procreation.     

Embryonal genetic diagnosis and reproductive freedom in assisted procreation]

This article analyses the repercussions that the Preimplantational Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) has in the bioethical as well as legal fields in relation with the so-called "reproductive freedom" of the couple. Besides analysing the legal situation of this technique in Spain as well as other surrounding States, the article studies the problems associated with some scenarios of PGD, such as the use in the selection of sex, for therapeutic purposes for third parties, in relation with diseases of a possible late onset, multifactorial or of a variable phenotype expression and for the selection of embryos affected by a disease or disability. All are based on real clinical cases.     

Human rights and trade mark rights

Legal context. For some time the UK Trade Marks Registry hasrefused to register trade marks which consists of the name ofa well-known individual. This article examines whether the practiceis permissible, not in the terms of intellectual property lawbut whether it is in contravention of the applicant's humanrights. Key points. Looking at the application of the Human Rights Actin the United Kingdom, the article asks how it could apply toan intellectual property case, concluding that the Trade MarkRegistry is clearly a ‘public authority’ and thatthere are a number of ways in which current practice in respectof well-known individuals could be said to infringe their humanrights. Practical significance. It remains to be seen what the Registry'sresponse will be to such arguments and whether it might in thefuture be possible to obtain protection for the name of a celebrity.     

Human assisted procreation and human rights--the Greek response to the felt necessities of the time

The new reproductive technologies enable otherwise infertile couples to reproduce noncoitally. Problems arising from the new reproductive techniques refer to the persons entitled to have access thereto, to the methods accepted (such as procreation by means of a surrogate mother), to the storage and donation of gametes and embryos, to donor anonymity etc. Although homologous and heterologous insemination and in vitro fertilisation have been performed in Greece for a long time, legal provisions thereon have been established only recently: Law 3089/2002 on assisted procreation builds the respective legal frame, regulating main aspects in this crucial field of interwoven human rights and social duties.