The European Court of Human Rights (the Court) has been invoking the vulnerability criterion to overcome the drawbacks of cases concerning Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the prohibition of discrimination. This new criterion, allowing the Court to favour the applicants, highlights the applicants’ group affiliation. However, whether this criterion is effective in protecting vulnerable applicants against discrimination is doubtful. To examine this, I divide the Court's approach to Article 14 before and after the application of the vulnerability criterion. I argue that vulnerability criterion was used to fix the drawbacks of Article 14, but eventually backfired. The concept of vulnerability has been ambiguous, inconsistently used by the Court, and paternalistic. I suggest the Court focus on individual autonomy rather than grouping the applicants to improve their legal reasoning of Article 14.

中文翻译：

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Les vulnérables : 评估欧洲人权法院第 14 条案件中的脆弱性标准

欧洲人权法院（法院）一直在援引脆弱性标准来克服有关《欧洲人权公约》第 14 条禁止歧视的案件的缺陷。这一新标准允许法院有利于申请人，突出了申请人的团体隶属关系。然而，这一标准是否能有效保护弱势申请人免受歧视是值得怀疑的。为了检验这一点，我在适用脆弱性标准之前和之后划分了法院对第 14 条的处理方式。我认为脆弱性标准被用来解决第 14 条的缺陷，但最终适得其反。脆弱性的概念一直模棱两可，法院使用前后不一致，而且家长式作风。