PROCEDURE

The case originated in an application (no. 64735/01) against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by Mr John Higham (“the applicant”) on 24 October 2000. Having originally been designated by the initials J.H., the applicant subsequently agreed to the disclosure of his name.

The applicant was unrepresented. The United Kingdom Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr C. Whomersley of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The applicant complained that the United Kingdom authorities’ refusal to grant him Widow’s Bereavement Allowance or equivalent constituted discrimination on grounds of sex contrary to Article 14 of the Convention in conjunction with Article 1 of Protocol No. 1.

By a partial decision of 4 December 2001 the Court decided to communicate the complaint concerning Widow’s Bereavement Allowance and declared the remainder of the application inadmissible. It also decided to join this application to other applications (nos. 60525/00, 60933/00, 60937/00, 60944/00, 61038/00, 61388/00, 61949/00, 62776/00, 63388/00, 63464/00, 63469/00, 63470/00, 63473/00, 63474/00, 63584/00, 63645/00, 63701/00, 63702/00, and 65723/01). By a decision of 26 August 2003 the Court declared the remainder of the application admissible.

THE FACTS

I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE

The applicant was born in 1943 and lives in Blackpool.

His wife died on 7 September 1997. On 19 July 2000 the applicant made a claim to the Inland Revenue requesting an allowance equivalent to that received by a widow, namely Widow’s Bereavement Allowance (“WBA”). On 16 August 2000 the Inland Revenue informed him that he was ineligible for WBA as he was not a woman. The applicant did not appeal further as he considered or was advised that such a remedy would be bound to fail since no such allowance was granted to widowers under United Kingdom law.