The European Court of Human Rights has found a violation of Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) in conjunction with Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) in a case concerning the denial of parental leave to a Russian military serviceman.
Konstantin Markin v. Russia concerned a serviceman rejected three years parental leave within the military because leave of this duration could only be granted to female military personnel.
The Court noted that while Article 8 did not include a right to parental leave, if the State was to create a parental leave scheme, it must do so in a non-discriminatory way. The Court outlined that "very weighty reasons" must be given before a difference in treatment between the sexes could be regarded as compatible with the ECHR. The Court ruled that parental leave was intended to enable the parent to look after the child in the home, and both parents were "similarly placed" regarding this role. In concluding that Russia had failed to justify the difference in treatment, the Court noted that the common standard among the absolute majority of European countries is that both mothers and fathers can take parental leave.