Постановление Европейского суда по правам человека от 07.10.2010 «Дело Константин Маркин (Konstantin Markin) против России» [англ.]

p towards the creation of effective equality of opportunity and treatment for men and women workers...
Contrary to the other regions, all the countries analysed in Europe provide a period of parental leave to take care of a newborn or young child, even if the length of the leave differs from country to country...
A major difference between maternity and parental leave is the scope of the provisions. While maternity leave is available only for women, parental leave provisions normally are also available for men. In some countries, it is a shared entitlement, where either the mother or the father has the right to take parental leave [for example in Estonia]. In other countries, each parent has an individual right to parental leave, which cannot be transferred to the other parent [for example in Belgium and Iceland]. As mentioned above, according to the EU Directive on parental leave [Council Directive 96/34/EC of 3 June 1996], it should be available to both parents as an individual entitlement. To promote equal opportunities and equal treatment between men and women, parental leave should, in principle, be granted on a non-transferable basis (EC, 1996)...
The introduction of parental leave provisions available to both fathers and mothers can be an effective tool for promoting gender equality. It recognizes the fact that fathers also have caring responsibilities. But even if parental leave by definition is available to both mothers and fathers, women are most often the ones who take parental leave, once maternity leave is finished. Generally, men's take-up rates are very low (ILO, 1997). For this reason, some countries have introduced a paternity quota that can only be taken by the father and is lost if he does not use it..."
27. With respect to maternity leave the Report states, in particular, as follows:
"In many countries, various categories of workers are explicitly excluded in the scope of labour legislation and/or social security legislation or of the corresponding law regulating cash maternity benefits...
In the European Union... the EU Directive applies to workers in all fields and occupations, with no exceptions. Nevertheless, ...in Greece, the armed forces, the police and domestic servants are not covered. In 1999, the Commission of the European Communities noted that the exclusion of these groups is contradictory to Community law, leading to infringement proceedings against [Greece] (Commission of the European Communities, 1999)."

B. Comparative law materials

28. A report entitled "International Review of Leave Policies and Related Research" published in July 2007 by the United Kingdom Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform describes leave entitlements for workers with dependent children in twenty-four countries (twenty-one European countries, Australia, Canada and the United States of America). According to that report the United States of America is the only country where there is no statutory right to parental leave. In contrast to maternity and paternity leave, which are by definition gender-related, parental leave can be taken by either parent in all countries under examination except one (in Hungary only the mother is entitled to take parental leave during the child's first year; during the child's second and third years, however, parental leave may be taken by either parent).
29. Parental leave is a family entitlement in ten countries, to be divided between parents as they choose (Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Spain); an individual entitlement in another ten countries, with each parent entitled to a certain portion of parental leave (Belgium, the Czech Republic, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom); and mixed (part family, part individual entitlement) in three c

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