European Court of Human Rights

FOURTH SECTION

FINAL DECISION

AS TO THE ADMISSIBILITY OF

Application no. 60940/00
by Brian ROBINSON
against the United Kingdom

The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 9 September 2008 as a Chamber composed of:

Lech Garlicki, President,
Nicolas Bratza,
Giovanni Bonello,
Ljiljana Mijović,
David Thór Björgvinsson,
Ledi Bianku,
Mihai Poalelungi, judges,
and Lawrence Early, Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 29 August 2000,

Having regard to the partial decision of 15 January 2002,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

The applicant, Mr Brian Robinson, is a British national who lives in Belfast. He was represented before the Court by Mr P. Colton, Citizens Advice Bureau, Belfast. The United Kingdom Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr C. Whomersley of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

A.  The circumstances of the case

The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.

The applicant’s wife died on 18 October 1983 leaving two children born in 1974 and 1978. On 12 May 2000 the applicant applied for widows’ benefits for the second time. On 1 June 2000 the applicant was informed that his claim had been disallowed. The applicant did not appeal further as he considered or was advised that such a remedy would be bound to fail since no such social security benefit was payable to widowers under United Kingdom law.

B.  Relevant domestic law

The domestic law relevant to this application is set out in Willis v. the United Kingdom, no. 36042/97, §§ 14 26, ECHR 2002-IV and Runkee and White v. the United Kingdom, no. 42949/98, §§ 40-41, 25 July 2007.

COMPLAINT

The applicant complained that British social security legislation discriminated against him on grounds of sex, in breach of Article 14 of the Convention taken in conjunction with both Article 8 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1.

THE LAW

On 3 August 2007 the Registry of the Court sent the applicant’s representative a letter requesting the applicant to forward his proposals for a friendly settlement of the application by 3 November 2007. The applicant’s representative did not reply. On 18 December 2007 the Registry of the Court sent the applicant’s representative another letter by registered mail stating that since he had not made contact, the Court would consider striking out the application from the list for lack of interest. By a letter of 18 April 2008 the applicant’s representative informed the Court that he no longer acted in these matters on behalf of the applicant. By letters of 29 April 2008 and 16 May 2008, sent by registered mail, the applicant was informed that since he had not informed the Court that he had withdrawn the representative’s mandate and that he had made no other contact, the Court would consider striking out the application from the list for lack of interest. The applicant has not contacted the Court since.

In the light of the above, in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention, the Court considers that the applicant does not intend to pursue his application. Furthermore, the Court finds no special circumstances regarding respect for human rights as defined in the Convention or its Protocols which require the continuation of the examination of the application.

Accordingly, the remainder of the application should be struck out of the Court’s list of cases.

For these reasons, the Court unanimously

Decides to strike the remainder of the application out of its list of cases.

Lawrence Early Lech Garlicki
Registrar President